IDLE SHIPYARDS.

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 131, 6 June 1925, Page 24

IDLE SHIPYARDS.

The condition of British shipyards continues to exercise the minds of all to whom the languishing condition of an industry so great and important is a matter of grave concern. It is indeed lamentable, states the "'Shipping World," to see an industry built up with so much care, and employing so niiinv men whose acquired skill and experience is of a. highly technical character, condemned to a prolonged period of idleness, and it is not surprising that suggestions and proposals arc forthcoming for reviviu"its activity. Mr. J. Howden Hume, president of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, gives his opinion that one of the causes is tho Washington Treaty whereby the buildnig of capital ships for our JNavy was to all intents and purposes stopped for a long period of years. The rcquiremnnts of the Navy in former times kept t!m shipyards employed and enabled' them to maintain highly skilled technical staffs whose ability was a great asset in the building of high-class passenger ships on a commercial basis. While the Washington Treaty was welcomed Try the iintish public as affording a relief "from burdensome taxation, one of its effects, says .Mr. Hume, has been to throw these men out of employment and 16 make, their ( maintenance a charge on "the dole/ In the meantime younger men are riot coming forward as apprentices to the shipbuilding industry, so that th* nation stands to lose in a few years the personnel on whom sho-was wont to rely for the construction of vessels both naval and mercantile. .To save the situation he suggests that the Government should accelerate the hiiildin- of such warships as arc permitted under tho Washington Ireaty, so that tho yards may be Kept in a state of efhciency to meet eraer<r e n-