In the rise of nations few phenomena are more striking than the way the Japanese merchant fleet has leapt into prominence in so few years. Even before the war she possessed only 3·9 of the world’s steam steel tonnage, and was the sixth power in the world as a sea-carrier; to-day she is actually bracketed fourth with France, and owning 5·6 of the percentage of tonnage. The Japanese are essentially copyists, and practically everything they know of shipbuilding or shipping in the modern sense has been derived from Great Britain. The war came as a grand opportunity to them, and as soon as the Germans vanished from the Eastern trades, the Japanese stepped in and took what they wanted at a time when our traders were busy with other matters. Thanks to the heavy subsidies granted by their Government, they have put up a keen competition, including the Indian coasting trade. Both geographically and economically Japan is well situated so as to expand her merchant fleet throughout the Orient and the Pacific, and all the evidence points to her intention to take every advantage of her opportunities. According to the most recent figures, the Japanese merchant fleet contained nearly 800 steamships of over 1000 tons, representing nearer 3,000,000 than 2,000,000 tons. The purchase of a large number of second-hand ships from other countries at a time when, owing to the slump, they could be bought for less than half their cost in Japan, is one of the latest instances of her enterprise. The Italian proportion of ownership in steamships has increased a point as a result of the war and after, and the addition in 1921 of the big _Giulio Cesare_ was a considerable acquisition to such a small marine. Built in England, this 22,500-ton (gross) steamer was the largest vessel the Wallsend yard had launched since they constructed the _Mauretania_. She can do her nineteen knots and more, and being intended for the Genoa-Buenos Ayres route, was fitted with ample luxury to tempt the South Americans. But there is also a big emigrant trade from this port westward, and more than half the accommodation in the ship is intended for them. The outcome of the war brought Trieste, Austria’s only port, into the hands of Italy, and this may have an important effect on Italian shipping in the future. It used to be to Austria what Fiume was to Hungary, and both States used to give large subsidies to their Mercantile Marines and encourage transport to and from these ports. Just before the war the Austro-Hungarian merchant ships represented only slightly over 1 per cent. of all the world’s sea-going steel steamers, but now this amount has dropped to nothing. Fiume was the port whence emigrants by the thousand poured from their Slav, Teuton and Magyar homes on board the liners bound for the United States. It was Hungary’s only port, and then the World War put an end to its glory and made it a source of grave international anxiety.