BRITISH SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 4

BRITISH SHIPPING

STILL IN STRONG POSITION,

Reviewing the report of the Chamber of Shipping of tho United Kingdom for 1922-23, Mr. S. W. B. -M'Gregor (Senior British Trade Commissioner in New bouth Wales), arrived at the conclusion that British shipping-, "unassisted by subsidy or protective national legislation, did its fair share of the carrying trade of the world in face of world-wide competition, and in some countries discrimination."

Mr. M'Gregor stated that for the'first nine months of 1922 practically no new ships were ordered from tho British yards, but in the last three months a tonnage- of about 200,000 was ordered from tho Tyno alone.. Lloyd's Register in June, 1022, showed a world's tonnage of stsam and motor sea-gointj shipping oi 5(5,802,000 tons, compared -with 12°--5H,000 in Juno, 1014. Tho tonnage registered m the United Kingdom in June, 1322, was 13,033,000. Tlie effective tonnage ul (.ho world wan placed a-t, 00 - 000,000, as i;otnj>avcd wil,h ■17,000,000 b«for f.hu v.'.ir. In July last it was ostimnk'il that ,-ibout. 12,000,000 net (mis of shipping- were idle in tin-, ports, of- the world. At that time 1,308,000 tons were laid up- in the United Kingdom,,. but by December that amount had declined to 711,000 tons. . : ■ ' • ■-..,

Dealing with the industrial world the report stated: "The year lias neon an increasing realisation-, on the' part of the workers, of the economic forces which govern'employers i^nd employed with an impartial hand, wljch neither can control. This has led;to the acceptance in a spirit of reason,..which is 1 full of hope for the future, of the inevitable reductions in wages, which have had' to be made. Reductions imist continue! to be made if there is to be a, return to prosperous commercial and industrial' life and, if these are accepted in the 'same spirit, we may'look to the future with confidence."