BRITAIN'S SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 8

BRITAIN'S SHIPS.

A BUILDING CRISIS.

Discussing the condition of Britain's mercantile marine and her shipbuilding industry, Mr. Hector C. Bywater write* in "The Navy": If public opinion, which after all, the motive power that drives the machinery of Government in this countiy. lemains blind to the actual crisis now confronting the twin industries upon which, and last, the life of the nation depends, it will not bo for lack of warning. For several vears now the steady shrinkage, both relative and absolute, of the merchant navy has been causing profound concern to all who ha\e the welfare of Britain at heart. But then warnings have gone almost unheeded.

During the past twelve months orders for L new tonnage placed in this country ha\e |< decreased bv approximately SO per cent. I-or ,■ foreign owners we arc building only £.>.000,000 j worth of new ships, while Continental \aids have booked orders to the value of £.">,000.000 from British owners. So, for the first time on record, we have an adverse trade .balance in the shipbuilding industry, and arc now importing tonnage considerably in excess of that which we are exporting. Ihe returns show further that 4.*> per cent of Germany .» current production of tonnage is for foreign customers; Italy's corresponding percentage is (15, and that of Sweden and Denmark about 7n each. An Assembling Trade. ® Shipbuilding Is essentially an assembling trade. Every component used in shop construction has advanced appreciably in price |during the past two years, largely because of the world-wide demand for raw materials i used in connection with the manufacture of I armaments. Moreover, in this country wages ihave risen, as have income tax and local rates. ! while there has been no relaxation in the trade union rules governing the division of lal>our. British industry, in fact, and shipbuilding in particular, is attempting to carry on '•business as usual"' in circumstances which are not merely unusual but absolutely abnormal. | That is whv the lowest British ; for an average high-class cargo steamer or } motor ship to-day would lie at. least 40 per jeent higher than the priee quoted in Germany, jltalv or Scandinavia. Frozen credits and currency manipulation play their parts in filling ! the German and Italian yards with new keels j while more and more British berths are jbecominr vacant, but these factors are only | incidental. The time lias come when foreign rivals can build ships, and good ships at that, far more cheaply than the best-organised and most efficient British yard i- able to do. A'# long as that state of affairs continues, it follows that more and more business will go to the foreigner and less and less to his British competitor—so-ealled. It should be added that State subsidies in manifold forms contribute to the price-cutting tactics which | are so successfully practised abroad, especiallv | ill Germany and Italy. Restoration of the Fleet. It seems to the writer that if Briti-h ; shipbuilding is to be saved from virtual j ! collapse a whiff of oxygen must be adminis- j tercd while there is yet time. Whether this is to take the form of a cash subsidy on every new ship to cover the discrepancy between home and foreign production costs, or sonic alternative method of equalising matters, must be left to authority to decide. But it is obvious that the matter will not brook delay. The restoration of the merchant navy is no less essential to the safety and welfare of our country than is the expansion of the fighting services and the organisation of air raid precautions. It. is strange indeed that this elementary truth is still not reflected in Government policy. A mere fraction of the vast sums expended on the promotion of agriculture and housing would have sufficed to restore our navy of supply to its old commanding position.