BRITISH SHIPPING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 14, 14 December 1932, Page 8

BRITISH SHIPPING.

No industry, perhaps, has suffered so much by the general industrial and financial depression, the erection of tariff barriers, and the great falling off in migration as has that of sea transport. For years the principal companies have had to draw on their reserves to pay dividends, or pass them altogether; in the harbours and inland waterways lie thousands of tons in idle vessels, many of them built at enormous cost; and officers and men of one of the finest services in the world are walking the streets awaiting the time when, they hope, there will be a revival of trade and they will again go to sea. Shipping, particularly the British lines, is suffering, as Hon. Alexander Shaw, chairman of the P. and 0. Line —who succeeded his father-in-law, the late Lord Inchcape, in that position—said recently, from the most prolonged and profound depression in history. Just how acute are the effects of this setback can be gauged from the fact that 5,000,000 tons of shipping were laid up in 1930, while in 1931 there were 10,500,000 tons, and in 1932, 15,000,000, or one-fifth of th§ world’s total. Some foreign lines are highly subsidised by their Governments and have weathered the depression better than others, but in Britain such contributions are not given on anything like the same basis. The British Chamber of Shippinghave not been dilatory in the matter of meeting the enforced idleness of their vessels, however. At a recent meeting- of the Chamber a scheme was put before members throughout the country for the voluntary laying-up of more vessels as a means of rationalisation. This did not meet with any great enthusiasm, and, as an alternative, it was decided to explore the possibility of scrapping. The Chamber had befox-e them a comprehensive report of discussions by the Shipping Policy. Committee in regard to the serious position which has arisen from the continued decline in world trade, and the growth of foreign subsidies to shipping. They endorsed a recommendation that the industry should place before the Government the increasing gravity of the position and the need for a serious attempt at the forthcoming World Economic Conference to remove trade ban-iei-s and restore the volume of cai-goes in the world’s overseas trade. “Failing that, the Chamber feels that the whole position as regards counter measures to safeguard the interests of British shipping might well have to be reconsidered,” the report added. “British shipowners have always believed in, and have long fought for, the principle of equality of treatment in shipping, but they cannot indefinitely stand idly by and watch their trade destroyed if other countries are not prepared to grant that equality which is given them by this country.” Tlie subject is one which is likely to loom largely in British political developments in the next few month?, for so vital an interest in the Empire’s advancement is shipping, that its present plight cannot-be ignored.