BRITISH SHIPPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 4

BRITISH SHIPPING.

COMPETITION FROM JAPAN. DROP IX EASTKRX BUSINESS. Mr. Alexander Shaw, chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation , ( ,',"e"''"' y ' '" '''* s| '"' r '' -.' l lhe annual I effects "upon British shipphitTof Japanese competition on Eastern trade routes. "To-day,' , he said, "our merchant tonnage is just about equal to carrying our trade in time of peace. In time of war it would not be equal to the task. Compare our case with that of Japan. .1 lie merchant navy of Japan k largely in excess of her economic needs. Jt is already capable of carrying her trade twice over, and now under the auspices and with the lavish assistance of her Government—against which I suggest no word of criticism—important further additions to her merchant fleet are about to be made. The number of British ships serving the Fast is bouod, in consequence, to diminish; no conceivable "If you take the trade between Calcutta and Japan, via the Straits and China, yon find that up to about 1011 the whole was carried by ships flying the British flag. Xow only about half that trade is carried in British vessels. Then take the trade between Bombay and Japan. Forty years ago almost 100 per cent of that was carried in British shipr,. Then the Japanese push began, and by powerful combination and co-operation of her trade, shipping, and Government interests. Japan has gradually pushed us out until now the Japanese control over SI) per cent of the traffic from Bombay to Japan, and over SO per cent of the traffic from Jai.au to Bombay. If you • take India as a whole it would seem that the Japanese are not far wrong in their claim that to-day 73 per cent of the tonnage employed in the trade from India to Japan flics the Japanese flag. More Japaneso Tonnage. "But this able and virile nation is far from being content even with that favourable situation. It is- preparing a still further push, and a Shipping Koute Control Act had recently been passed by the Japanese Diet, with the purpose of increasing the tonnage of the mercantile marine by some 50 per cent, by which it is intended, to quote the words of n strengthen Government control over Japaneso ships and to turn this extended power to the direction of competition with foreign companies.' '"Japan sees the British mercantile basis, and very" few 'people 'in Britain troubling themselves at all about its fate. Xo wonder that her Government, with the support of her people, concentrates upon its extinction so that they may step into its place. We learn that no means are to be left untried and that building subsidies, amounting to as much as 40 per cent of the whole of the cost of construction, are to be presented as a gift in order to press on the building of vessels of the most modern type and of high speed. "The meaning of all this is that Japan will tighten her grip over the commerce of India and practically close her grip over Indian communications to the East." Australian Routes. Referring to Australian routes, Mr. Shaw said' it would make no immediate difference to the company's finances if the Canadian-Australasian Line followed the Xew Zealand-San Francisco Line into the pit digged for it by high American subsidies and British apathy. The CanadianAustralasian Line was not a P. and O. subsidiary. If they took the longer view, however," the interest of the company was identical with the interest of all British shipowners and of the British public C "This is a test ease." Mr. Shaw said, "and in its decision the interest of all British shipowners and of the Empire itself" is great. If the Canadian-Aus-tralasian Line is also wiped out by wholly have been given to other lands of how easv it is to extinguish British lines anywhere, and of how British hesitation, timidity and inaction lend themselves to