ASSISTANCE FOR SHIPPING

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22673, 30 March 1939, Page 11

ASSISTANCE FOR SHIPPING

BRITISH INDUSTRY

TO BE HELPED

SUBSIDIES ANNOUNCED

BY GOVERNMENT

‘‘ESSENTIAL PART OF NATIONAL DEFENCES’’

(BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received March 29, 9 p.m.) . RUGBY, March 28. Subsidies to shipping and shipbuilding were announced in the House of Commons by the President of the Board of Trade (Mr Oliver Stanley), who recalled that the importance of those industries did not rest only on the contribution they made to the country’s economic resources, but they were also an essential part of the national defences. Mr Stanley said that an annual sum of £2,750,000 would be available over a period of five years for tramp shipping—a scheme following the general lines of the former scheme dating from 1935. As regards liners, it was proposed to appoint an advisory committee for an experimental period of two years to examine and advise the Government on requests for assistance from liner companies whose services were endangered by subsidised foreign competition, and Parliament would be asked to make financial provision to enable the Government to grant financial assistance promptly in cases where the Government decided it was necessary. In cases in which other parts of the British Commonwealth were concerned there would be consultation.

Mr Stanley, replying to Mr Arthur Evans’s inquiry as to whether the Dominions would be asked to contribute in respect to cargo liners operating between Britain and the Dominions, declared that it would be necessary for a specific case to be established in respect to each individual service. It would be for the Government to consider whether it was appropriate to ask the Dominions to assist. Immediate Encouragement

Mr Stanley next turned to measures intended to give more direct and immediate encouragement. To give more confidence to the shipowner, it was proposed to provide funds from which owners of tramps and cargo liners—other than refrigerated or passenger vessels—ordered in the next few months from United Kingdom shipbuilders, would receive a grant of an appropriate amount in each of the next .five years, with the exception of any year in which the earnings were such as to make a grant unnecessary. The amount to be used for. these grants would not exceed £ 500,000 a year during the five-year period. The Government proposed also to ask Parliament to make available £10,000,000 for loans to shipowners over a period of two years on favourable terms for building in Britain tramps and cargo liners—other than refrigerated vessels and passenger vessels—including tramps and cargo liners intended for the coasting trade. Finally, Mr Stanley added, the Government had called for a further exceptional measure to increase the amount of tonnage under the British flag, and it accordingly proposed to ask Parliament to make £2,000,000 available for the, purchase of suitable vessels on the United Kingdom register which, though still capable of service, would otherwise be sold to foreign owners or for breaking up.

The proposals outlined by Mr Stanley do not include any assistance for tankers. In the case of each form of assistance the expectation of the Government is expressed that the interests concerned will take steps during the currency of the subsidy to improve their position so that future assistance will not be necessary. In the case of the tramp subsidy, the industry, is to do its utmost to promote international measures to safeguard freight rates. . •

GERMAN EXPORTS

TO BRITAIN

REFERENCE TO SUBSIDISED COMPETITION

(BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, March 28. The President of the Board of Trade (Mr Oliver Stanley) was asked in the House of Commons if in view of the growing volume of subsidised German imports he would consider the imposition by legislation of special anti-dumping duties on the lines of those imposed by America.

He replied that the subject of subsidised competition in the United Kingdom market had been considered on a number of occasions, and he saw no reason to differ from the conclusion reached that the existing tariff system was adequate to deal with competition of this kind.