BRITISH SHIPS' SAFETY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 8 April 1925, Page 11

BRITISH SHIPS' SAFETY.

MORE LIVES LOST IN LONDON.

U HAMPERING TRADE."

jNTEUNATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

Tbe year 1024 was a disappointing T ,ir for shipowners, and in the animal Jnnort of the Liverpool Steamship nVvners' Association, some important factors in present-day conditions ure .riven prominence. c "The financial results shown by a number of representative steamship companies for the. past year" states the report, "provo that freights cannot be further reduced without endangering the eiliciency and, indeed, the existence of those services. The voyage profits have hardly covered depreciation." In an allusion to increased fees for Government supervision and new and more stringent Board of Trade regulations, it is stated that already the standard on British vessels with regard to the health and safety of those on board is higher than that on the ships of any other nation, and further requirements at heavy cost, aiming at the ideal, , would appear to lie appropriate to international agreement rather than domestic legislation. The high quality of British ships and the care exercised on them is shown, it is contended, by the fact that in the ktest return (for the three years ending December, 1922) the average loss of life at sea from casualties on British steamsliips other than fishing vessels amounted to 239, a figure which is little, more than one-third of that arising from accidents in the streets of London alone. International Conventions. Dwelling on the subject of international conventions, the report says it lias still to be shown how far we as a nation stand to gain by taking part in conventions of an international kind without some assurance that other nations besides ourselves will honour their signatures by ratification.

"Up to- now our experience of international conventions has not been fortunate- Great Britain was the only nation to ratify the Convention on Safety of Life at Sea., At conferences held under the auspices of the League 10 conventions have been adopted, of which Great Britain has already ratified seven, , and it is understood that the present Government proposes to ratify another three, making ten in all. Neither France nor Germany has yet ratified a single convention, while the United States has not been a party to any of them.

"The result is that we, and we alone, accept at the instance of other nations obligations imposed by international agreement which are not part of our laws and may be foreign to our conceptions. It is to bo hoped that our Government will in the future hesitate before ratifying international conventions unless they have full assurance .that other nations which are parties to them will not only ratify but carry them out in the spirit and the letter."

The report adds that continuous efforts have been made by British shinowners to recapture those trades outside the Empire lost during the war, "but anything m the shape of excessive regulations which do not apply to foreS* ships must not only hamper ollr efforts but further tend to divert the trade which we still have to foreign flaU »