U.S. MERCHANT SHIPPING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 9

U.S. MERCHANT SHIPPING

Unfavourable Report (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 17. A private research group said today that America’s merchant fleet was deteriorating so badly it might not be able to meet the challenge of the cold war, much less an armed conflict. The group said the Communist world’s merchant fleet was being modernised and probably would be three times and a half bigger by 1965. The group also said some of the larger Soviet shipyards were more advanced in many ways than those in the United States and Western Europe. The report was prepared by a nine-man panel of the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council The panel on wartime uses of the United States merchant Marine was headed by Admiral Arthur Radford, former chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The panel said most of the ships in America's privately-owned merchant fleet “are nearly overage and long outmoded from the standpoint of modern design.” In addition, it said, American ships were carrying a “steadily decreasing” share of United States foreign trade. The panel urged the United States to build a new, faster class of cargo vessels with auto-mation-type features to meet the Communist merchant fleet challenge. It said the Government should take the lead in enlisting the cooperation of unions and management for a determined effort to achieve the objective. The experts also urged the Government to consider the construction of an experimental aluminium cargo ship.