BRITISH SHIPPING IN THE PACIFIC

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 10

BRITISH SHIPPING IN THE PACIFIC

In the report (published yesterday) of the Imperial Shipping Committee on the possibilities of a British passenger and cargo service between Western Canada and.Australia-New Zealand, the hard. facts of the situation which has developed from the competition of highlysubsidised United States mail and passenger luxury lipers with British shipping operating under much less favourable conditions are cleai ly set out. What has happened is familiar history and need not be recapitulated. The position at present is that the New Zealand steamers which serviced the San Francisco-Wellington-Sydney line in competition with the American San Pedro-Auckland-Sydney line have dropped out of the running, unable to carry on without continued heavy losses. Under the previous arrangement the Vancouver and San brancisco mail .services between them gave New Zealand and Australia a regular fortnightly delivery of overseas mails, with the Matson services as an extra. So much for the past. What of the future? One answer to this question is the tentative plan suggested by the Imperial Shipping Committee in its report, the adoption of which is a matter for the Governments of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as the interested parties, to decide. Frequency of mail services is an important consideration to business. Ihe comfort, service, and amenities provided in ships are vital factors m tourist traffic. . The Imperial Shipping Committee considers that “ships slight.lv superior to the present Matson vessels, and nothing inferior, will bring back passengers to the British line.” Our competitors, it is emphasised, have successfully exploited the traffic “not by cutting fares, but by supplying superior speeds and luxury ... no service on lower standards of speed and amenity can compete on anything like equal terms even for traffic of local origin.” Both from the business and the tourist angles, therefore, new Pacific liners flying the British flag must he fast and luxurious. To place two such vessel on the run will cost the four interested countries £2.500,000 a capital expenditure estimated to be capable of serving requirements for the next twenty vears. The apportionment of this will be a matter for negotiation. Ihe committee has not overlooked the development of Pacific air mail services as a factor likely to affect shipping mail contracts and subsidies, but considers that such a development must necessarily be slow, and need not be seriously entertained for many years to come. The question now is whether the scheme suggested is likely to appeal to the countries interested. The New Zealand Government has evinced a sympathetic attitude toward the recovery of our lost shipping trade in the Pacific. Whether it is prepared to participate financially is a question which awaits an answer. “We cannot stand by and watch our shipping being driven off the seas by the subsidised competition of other countries without striving to protect it,” said the Minister of Marine in a speech at the annual gathering of the New Zealand Company of Master Mariners. That at least implies a policy of action. It is to be hoped it will become explicit