SHIPBUILDING RACE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 52, 1 March 1919, Page 17

SHIPBUILDING RACE.

LORD INCHCAPE _ WARNING.

Lord Inchcape, addressing the P. and O. shareholders recently, said the Government have announced that they do not contemplate the nationalisation of shipping. The thing if attempted wonld have proved an egregious failure and would have been abandoned in a very short time. Unless British shipping regains its old ascendancy it will not be shipping alone that will suffer; it will ■be the entire ibody of British trade. Shipping is the moet vital of all "key industries," and unless it continues to outstrip its rivals m the future as m the past, both in prosperity and in adaptability, the whole edifice of our foreign commerce must collapse. "In the coming decade we are more Kkely to see three jobs for one man than three men for one job. We may for a time have high prices, but they will be world-prices. We shall pull through." Lloyd's return shows that the tonnage of merchant ships under construction in the United Kingdom on September 30 was 1,746,933, of which 1,742,083 was steel. This is about 68,000 tons less than at the end of the last quarter, and 132,600 tone leas than twelve months ago.

The steel merchant steamships and motor vessels under construction abroad are 3,193,040 tons, of which 2,153,358 tons are in the United States.