SHIPPING WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 67, 29 December 1928, Page 5

SHIPPING WAR

SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE.

UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN.

ALLEGATIONS BY CUNARD LINE.

(United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 8.10 a.m.) NEW YORK, December 28.

What is regarded in some quarters os tantamount to a shipping war between Britain and the United States for the South American trade, took a more serious turn to-day, with the publication by the Cunard Line of a statement giving a hint of a possible Court action against the United States Shipping Board. The statement was in the form of a letter to Mr T. F. O’Connor (chairman of the Shipping Board) from Mr Robert Blake (associate director of the Cunard Line), and charged the Board with violation of the United States Federal statute. The Cunard Line resented the Board’s action in placing the steamship President Roosevelt at the disposal of the Ward Line after the Cunard Company had announced that the Cunarder Caronia would be used! for the Havana service. The Caronia started the initial voyage on the new run with a full passenger list on December 27. The President Roosevelt will start her first Havana trip on January 5, which coincides with the date of the Caronia’s second voyage. Mr O’Connor had stated that the Board was merely following the customary policy of aiding American merchant marine companies, but the Cunard statement chareed the Board with violation of Section 14 of the Shipping Act. 1920. which bars' the use of “a fighting ship,” which it thus defines; “the term / fighting ship’ in this Act means a vessel used in a particular trade by a carrier or group of carriers for the purpose of excluding, preventing or reducing competition by driving another carrier out of the said trade.’ The statement concluded: “Our proper course in such circumstances as now confront us would naturally be to refep the matter to your Board, but as the ship involved is the Board s vessel and is put into the trade on the terms above described by the Board, we may find it necessary, if we are damaged to any appreciable extent, to appeal to the Courts for relief.” —Australian Press Association.