TRADE WITH BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24797, 11 February 1946, Page 4

TRADE WITH BRITAIN

EARLY RELEASE OF SHIPS

VISITING OFFICIAL’S VIEWS Shipping lines operating between Great Britain and New Zealand are entering post-war trade with fleets reduced by at least a third and with shipbuilding prices at least 100 per cent, above their immediate pre-war levels, according to Mr Basil Sanderson, managing director of the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, and for five years officer in charge of port and transport control in the Ministry of Shipping and the’Ministry of War Transport. Mr Sanderson spoke of the future of British merchant shipping in a broadcast address last night. “I must restrict myself to talking of the small portion of the British Merchant Navy which serves New Zealand in its overseas trade,” he said. “The expenses in manning and operating ships to-day are double those of prewar. These lines, however, have largely been associated for many years with the people and trade of New Zealand. They feel part and parcel of New Zealand. They have seen so much grow from small beginnings into vast enterprises, and in that development the lines have shared.

“It is therefore understandable with our past background that we should not be devoid of confidence for the future. We have our duty to New Zealand to perform, and we intend, if it be New Zealand’s will, to meet our obligation to the full. We are building large numbers of new vessels of the type of which we, and we hope New Zealand, will be proud, and we believe that we shall be able to offer New Zealand the services which she needs.

“Our passenger vessels are still in the hands of the Ministry of War Transport, and are employed in taking troops home. The Ministry, however, has made it plain that from the beginning of March we shall gradually have our vessels returned to us one by one as they reach the ports of Great Britain. These vessels, and particularly the passenger ships, will not be in their peace-time garb when they are handed back to us. Some of them have been through two conversions, and they will require complete overhaul and their accommodation rebuilt before they can be put once more into passenger service.”