"GRIM STRUGGLE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 7

"GRIM STRUGGLE."

BRITISH SHIPPING. CHOICE OF TWO ROADS. ONUS UPON DOMINIONS. "I cannot tell you how much encouraged I have been by the attitude of the public and of the Press in New Zealand," said the Hon. Alexander Shaw, chairman of the P. ar.d O. Company, in an address to representatives of the shipping industry in Wellington prior to his departure by the Kangitiki for London.

Mr. Shaw added: "You have here a special problem somewhat apart fiom the general problem which faces the Empire as a whole. Highly subsidised foreign competition is, to my own certain "knowledge, now undermining the services which British shipping is able to render to this Dominion and to Australia. Those lucky people are not content with strictly preserving their own estate against you. They come into your back garden and dig up the potatoes for their own consumption. A point has been reached at which I would respectfully suggest a definite choice of roads has to be taken. There are two roads, and it is impossible to travel by both, for they go in different directions. One road leads to the gradual extinction of British shipping services between the two Dominions and to the extension of foreign subsidised lines in the trade. If you travel by that road, at the end of it lies, in my humble opinion, not only disillusionment but dishonour. The other road is the road of fair play to British sliippuig, fair play which will enable it not only to continue to serve the interests of both Dominions, but to construct new ves--sels, which under existing circumstances it would be folly to build. Along that road there lies security in the services of British ships which are yours to the end, not only when the sun shines but when the clouds darken and the day-of peril cornea.

"It has been suggested that I say such tliiDgs out of personal interest. I have not one penny of personal pecuniary interest in this matter, not a single penny. But I know the facts, and I venture respectfully to put them before my fellow British citizens. It is for them to choose. If they choose the British road of courage, security, and honour they will never regret it. If they delay too long they will already have made the fatal chioce of the other road. "If that other road is chosen I profoundly believe that in less than a generation the British race everywhere will reprobate the apathy which delivered up to foreign hands without _ a protest or struggle the sea power which made the Empire and which alone can

preserve it. What is happening now is not tlio result of fate, but the inevitable result of apathy and folly. Other nations which have less need of a great mercantile fleet have preserved and expanded theirs. We in our utter need for such a fleet have forgotten and neglected ours. Courage, a clear policy, and definite action are the need of hour. I should not wonder if New Zealand, where these qualities flourish, leads the way. In great emergencies she has never been backward. She has been in the van of progress. So from these shores God grant that there may come a message of hope to British shipping in its grim struggle, a message breathing the sympathy of a fairminded people and the clear courage of a gallant land."