conditions imposed on the beneficiaries were the requirements that
steamers must carry more than one-half their maximum load; that each
must have a wireless telegraph outfit, this, however, instituted at the
Government's expense; that the Department of Communications be furnished
with information as to freights and passenger rates; and that proper
terminal facilities, as piers, warehouses, lighters, be provided by the
subsidized companies.[FJ] The steamers receiving the full subsidy must
be home-built, of steel, of over 3000 tons gross, and showing a speed of
at least twelve knots per hour. The rate was fixed at fifty sen per
gross ton for every thousand nautical miles, and ten per cent of this
sum added per additional speed of one nautical mile an hour, according
to the conditions of the route. Upon a vessel the age of which exceeds
five years the subsidy decreases five per cent each year till the age
of fifteen is reached, when it ceases. Foreign-built steamers under five
years of age, which may be put in service with the sanction of the
Government authorities, are entitled to half of the subsidy. The
construction subsidies were arranged in two classes, and each class in
four grades.[FK] The rates were slightly increased over those of the law
of 1896, and their benefits were limited to steel vessels of over 1000
tons instead of 700 tons.

The total appropriations for ship subsidies in the budget for 1911-12
amounted, in American money, to $6,845,995, of which $6,294,020 were for
navigation, and $551,975 for construction subsidies: an increase of
$478,387 in the former class over the appropriation of the previous
year, and a decrease in the latter class of $6,835.[FL]

The total Japanese tonnage in 1910 stood at 1,149,200 tons.[FM] The
_Nippon Yusen Kaisha_ practically owns nine-tenths of the ocean-going
steamships flying the Japanese flag.[FN]