BRITISH SHIPPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 37, 13 February 1934, Page 11

BRITISH SHIPPING.

" THE WORST STORM." SUBSIDISED COMPETITION. i $ HON. MR. SHAW'S APPEAL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The Hon. Alexander Shaw, chairman of the P. and O. Company, speaking to-day at a luncheon at which he entertained the executive officers of the Union Steam Ship Company, referred to competition with British shipping by highly subsidised United States vessels and commented on their participation in the domestic trade between New Zealand and Australia — trade which they had never created. "Is it unfair to ask your distinguished statesmen," said Mr. Shaw, "who, as I well know, have the interests of New Zealand and the Empire'so near their hearts, whether tliev are really prepared gradually to abandon this vital Empire interest to its fate at foreign hands? If they are not so prepared, will they not say so in order that as a practical business matter we may know where we are, whether we are to have something like fair play or. whether, through the vista of the years we can look forward to nothing but the increasing menace of wholly uneconomic foreign competition, without any limit and without any end except the gradual extinction of British shipping? "Empire Waking Up." "It is yours," he said, "to strain every effort to deserve well of the public you serve. In years to come I think you will all look back with pride to the days when you devoted every ounce of energy to keeping the red ensign of Britain on the seas in face of the worst/ storm which has ever threatened British shipping. "It is an unequal contest, I know, but it will not endure for ever. The Empire is waking up. It knows its debt to British ships, which were its foundation and which are still its only safe link and sure defence. In the meantime relax no effort and do not become embittered. "None of us has anything but feelings of friendship and admiration for the great people of the United States. None of us would dream of challenging their right to build lip a great mercantile marine, and I do not believe for a moment any enlightened section of American public opinion would challenge our right to defend our purely domestic shipping trades. ! The Domestic Problem. "Your domestic problem between New Zealand and Australia is aside from the general question of how best to counter high foreign subsidies. It is different in kind and extent from the general problem of Imperial shipping policy. It is a wholly domestic issue and capable of separate and speedy solution. "We have an ally more powerful than all the wealth of foreign taxpayers which is arrayed against us," Mr. Sliaw continued. "Of recent weeks it has been my privilege to consult with hundreds of representative men on this great matter —in Scotland, England, India, Australia and New Zealand. Everywhere I can feel an advance by this great unseen ally — this unconqucrcd spiritual force of our people, this love of :i fair deal, and this high recognition of the yet unfinished destiny of the British race. Our greatest days arc not behind us. They lie ahead. The spirit of our heroic history lights the path of the future."