PUNISH THE PIRATES

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 42, 17 August 1918, Page 4

PUNISH THE PIRATES

POSITION OF SHIPPING AFTER

THE WAR

BRITISH COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

The report was published in London in June of the Committee appointed by the Board of Trade to consider the position of shipping and the shipbuilding industries after the war.

After reviewing the situation created by the war, including the heavy financial burdens to which the British shipping industry has been subjected in the interest of the conduct of the war— burdens from which, it is pointed out, neutral countries will be immune—the report declares that ,the demand for shipping after the war will probably be greater than if there had been no war, while we shall be left with a mercantile marine quite inadequate \to meet our needs. It will therefore be necessary to make the restoration of the mercantile marine a .first charge on the national resources. . The recommendations of the Committee, which are unanimous, include the following:— i (a) The early removal of the Government control of shipping. (b) Vessels still required for Government purposes should be chartered at market rates, and any advantage enjoyed by foreign shipowners regarding rates should cease at the termination of the war, if not earlier.

(c) Immediate steps should be taken to bring the Government rates paid to British shipowners to a level which ensures a reasonable return on vessels built at present prices. ENEMY SHIPS. Tire report proceeds: "We consider that no peace will be satisfactory which does not enforce the surrender of enemy shipping and inflict drastic and exemplary punishment for the enemy's crimes at sea. Enemy countries should/be required as a condition !-of peace' to surrender to the Allies all their merchant shipping, whether in enemy or neutral ports, at the close of hostilities, and to forfeit all ships laid up since the outbreak of hostilities in ports of countries that have become involved in the war or have broken off diplomatic relations with them, and to restore to the Allies all Allied shipping that may have come into their possession since the outbreak .of hostilities. The shipping thus taken over from the enemy should be utilised as far as possible to assist demobilisation and to release for trade a proportion of the Allied shipping absorbed in transport work. When demobilisation is completed, all unsold enemy vessels should be sold by auction in the various countries, the pVoceedg being treated as a part of the common war '• indemnity paid by our enemies. _ '

"Provided such arrangements are possible, we think that a scheme of distribution which would secure the allocation of enemy tonnage among the Allies in some rough proportion to the losses sustained by individual; Allied countries would offer many advantages; otherwise enemy vessels should be sold by auction in the various countries to the highest bidder of Allied nationality, acting on behalf of Allied interests. A condition of sale should prevent the retransfer oE the vessels to enemy interests for such a period as restrictions may be imposed on the enemy's shipping trade generally." ■ NEW SHIPS. ' The committee declares that it is essential that at the conclusion of peace we should be prepared to complete annually not less than two 'million tons net of merchant shipping. The committee makes various recommendations in this connection, and declares : that Government control of construction should cease immediately after the war. It urges that even during the war facilities should.be afforded to builders to construct liner tonnage to owners' own designs, witli such limitations as may be necessary to (insure a rapid output and a large carrying capacity. The committee urges that it will be desirable after the war to relax considerably the present licensing system in regard to the transfer of vessels to non-enemy flags. Special restrictions on building for Germans 'or transfers to the German flag vrould be useless unless all the Allies, including the United States, agree to similar action and are prepared to exert pressure on neutrals in regard to the matter. If the Allies decide to take such measures during the early reconstruction period the building of ships in the Empire for enemy owners and transfers to enemy flags should be prohibited for such time as these measures are enforced. The same result as far as this country is concerned could largely be attained by British shipbuilders and shipowners themselves in giving preference to all flags over enemy flags, both respecting building and transfers.

.As regards conference agreements, the committee comments upon the too common evasions and subterfuges on the part of the Germans, who have observed agreements only so far as it has paid them to do so. The committee's conclusion, however, is that it would be inexpedient to prohibit conference arrangements.

The committee says that German shipping was the spearhead of German aggression. It was used to further German aims, especially in the Near and Middle East, Equatorial Africa, South and Central America, and the Far East.

With reference to coasting and interImperial trade, the committee recommends the strict application to foreign ships calling at British ports of the safety and health requirements, imposed on British shipping. ■ It says that restrictions on the employment of foreign seamen on British ships are undesirable, but masters should be natural born British subjects. The committee doubts the expediencey of a general exclusion of foreign flags from the coasting and interImperial trades, and does not support the recommendations of the Dominions Royal Commission regarding subsidised mail services and mail subsidies being made subject to certain conditions as to carrying freight.