VAST SHIPPING PLANS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3196, 21 September 1917, Page 5

VAST SHIPPING PLANS

HOW GERMANY HOPES TO RECOVER ANOTHER SIDE OF THE U-BOAT WAR (By Frederic William Wile, in the * "Daily Mail.") Germany has launched an immensely important project' for recovering l'.cr position as ono; o£ the world's foremost shipping Powers. 1 In the midst of Inst week's political hubbub the Government promulgated a Bill for reconstructing the mercantile marine in the shortest possible number of years after the way. Practically, unlimited State funds will bo made available.. The scheme, which is the greatest ship subsidy .interpriso on record, contemplates that the ycrman merchant fleet will be at its pre-war figure of 5,000,000 tons fit tlie end of nine years. Of this total it is said that more than < 2,000,000 tons havo been destroyed or seized by the enemy»• 1,000,000 tons blockaded in' neutral porte> and the remaining 2,000,000 are warbound in German harbours. /. , u The Bill has been the subject of months of conference between the Jmperial authorities and the Ilamburg and Bremen magnates. The Govern* mentis original plan was to lend public 1 funds at low interest tor reconstruction lof the mercantile fleet. The shippers were not satisfied with this proposal* which they found particularly mad* quate after some 1,500,000 tons of German merchant crait were seized in North nncl South American waters following tlie United -States' entry into tho war. A i compromise was. therefore agreed upon* | whereby the companies will receive outright grants for' "substituting tho vessels they have lost or which have suffered serious damage on account of the war. Money will also be granted - to cover the upkeep of ships, maintenance of crews, dock dues, and other costs incidental to remaining tied up in neutral liarbJurs. No compensation is to be paid an vessels which have been in German Luring the war. Many of these are now German auxiliary cruisers plying profitably in tho Baltic.

How Money Will be Paid. . Funds for "substituting" ships will. i>» allotted oa the basis oi a given ships inventory value as at July '~ Administration of the iunds will be in the hands of a ' commission ot seven members and seven deputy-mem-bers. As the main desire is to commission the largest number of vessels in the shortest possible space, oi tune, tho BUI has in view the laying down ot smaller or medium-sized vessels rathei than the leviatha'n type. It 1B : also law down as a principle that cargo vessels uro more urgently needed than passenger liners. The basic idea of she Hill js to rehabilitate German industry with au dispatch.. Ships oapablo ot carrying heavy cargoes of indispensable rawstulfs sucu as copper, cotton, petroleum, leather, zinc, lead, nitrate, iron ore, and wood. 1 pulp are the type ot craft whose construcaon is to be strenuously taken in hand. Subsidies will be granted with duo regard to the immeasurably higher cost ot ship-building now, and after the war than bdore July, 1914. "Estra grants . are therefore to bfc made, and tiiey "Nill uo larger lis the faster Binps aro tasked and made ready for sea. On vessels .commissioned within the first to tho third Jem alter tho war the "extra grant wilt uo «0 to 80 per cent, of the; increase in building cost; on vesßels finished within the fourth to the sixth year, 10 to «l per cent.; and on those completed within the seventh to the ninth year, 20 to M) 1! Hilf'of the July, 1914, inventory value of tho ship to be "substituted and, the entire cost of "unproductive upkeep ot interned or blockaded vessels will u6 puitl •to shipowners as soou as tlie amounts are calculated. Tlie remaining 50 per i-ent. for coustruction expense will be p&ul oyer as soon as tho disbursement ot ; extra L'lunts" permits. Ifunds will be available before a new ship is actually laid doyJI, but must be returned if cvidcuco is .acit supplied within three years that the contract for tho vessel has ]> ee " There,is also provision m tlie lint toi compensating officers and men of the mcrcan tile marine whose private properly n«is been lost owing to "acts of mi. "U-boat warfare on British, Allied, ,ii.u neutral shipping, especially against rjorI way, is directly associated »'iui Uer--1 many's ambitious scheme tor making her merchant Hag "supreme niter the war. Bv destroying as much non-uenniin shipping as possible during the continuance of hostilities and simultaneously embarking upon a vast programme oi new construction of their own the bermans hope to emerge from the war as the. first shipping Power.