SHIPPING SERVICES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 21, 21 December 1932, Page 7

SHIPPING SERVICES

CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. NATIONAL SUBSIDIES. \ LARGE SUMS GRANTED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received December 21, 8.30 a.m. LONDON, Dec. 20. At a meeting of shareholders of the Orient Line, Sir Alan Anderson, who presided, said: “We have been guided in our decision not to pay a dividend not so much by the cash which would enable the payment of a dividend as by the prospects of trade. The Australian passenger trade does not yet show those clear signs of improvement which would alone justify the payment of a dividend from the reserves. We have reason to bo thankful in this year of collapse that we have not only avoided an actual loss but have realised a cash profit of £IOO,OOO on the holiday cruises, which has helped to solve the unemployment problem. “Among the world causes of our depression is that one nation after another is giving enormous subsidies for dumping shipping services on the world with the apparent object of ruining shipowners who try to make ends meet. The Matson Line, by placing on the San Francisco-New Zealand-Australian run three new vessels whose capital cost and running expenses are much greater than, judged by past experience, the trade will repay, is competing with a British line which cannot dip into the public purse and is unable to offer the public such costly vessels. If the Matson Line had found twenty-five million dollars themselves, and were charged the normal rates of interest on the sum, or wore in any serious risk of having to pay the eventual loss, we might blame them for gambling, but as a grateful nation is taking the risk wo must congratulate them on being safe men, not gamblers.”