WHO WILL WIN?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 134, 4 December 1930, Page 19

WHO WILL WIN?

WORLD'S TONNAGE

AMERICA CHALLENGES BRITAIN

SHIPBUILDING EACE

Shipowners throughout tho -world,; as ■well ■as shippers of goods, are face to face with with a remarkable movement bythe United States which threatens to -disorganise ocean transport. About one-third of all the cargoes which enter: and leave America a ports' are carried in' British ships, one-third in the ships of' 29 other nations, and only one-third iu,'American.ships. Atone time the American percentage was much smaller. After the Great AVar many Americans rebelled against, this state of things, •which they condemned as one.of'humiliating dependence. They refused to recognise that the seas were' all one, and.that shipping was an international industry, cargoes, in the absence of artificial icstrietions, being carried by the vessels, irrespective of nationality,' "which convey them most cheaply, most expeditiously, and most safely, writes Sir: Archibald Ilurd hi the Melbourne: •'Age." The American revolt began among shipowners '• and shipbuilders. For ' a long time the rest of the people of the United States took no interest in it. Bat once the naval ambitions of American naval' officers had been, in some degree, recognised in the AVashington Naval Treaty, they threw in their lot with the shipowners and shipbuilders, and became missionaries of the movement to restore the prestige by sea .of the United States; for before the Americans became an industrial people, earning high wages and living in real comfort,, they competed with the British in the marine transport of the world, owning some of the finest and swiftest clipper ships. The naval officers claimed that a great merchant navy was eomplementaryto a war fleet "second to none," and essential to national defence. Then politicians, including many senators and members of the House of Kepresentati%res, came to the conclusion that votes were to be obtained by supporting, the cry for "a merchant navy second, to none." They, in due course, became missionaries. The crusade has now enlisted no mean part of the population of 120,000,000 people. President Hoover, as well as his predecessor, President Co olidge, is an enthusiastic adherent of what may be described as the "blue water school."

HEAVY SACRIFICE,

Sacrifices are being made in order to increase the United States' prestige by sea. It is estimated that the taxpayers have already spent about £800,----000,000 on merchant shipping, and now further sums are being distributed by •way of State loans for shipbuilding and extravagant mail subsidies for ship operating. A vessel operating between New York and Britain will receive ■ a subsidy of upwards of £8000 for each voyage; the payment on a ship trading between New York and Singapore will exceed £24,000 on each "run." During the next ten years it is intended to spend £53.600,000 in this way. In order to earn this "easy money' 5 the companies concerned have had to agree to build new vessels, and already arrangements have ljecn made for constructing 68 cargo and passenger ships, which will cost upwards, of £55,000,----000. It is the most ambitious pro-

gramme of its kind ever undertaken in any country. Already the shipping situation has undergone a dramatic change as a result of the American "shipping drive." Down to the ovo of the Great War the ocean-going. tonnage of the United States never exceeded 3,000,000 gross. It amounted in 1914't0 2,970,254 ,tons gross. Then, owing to.the threat of submarine and mine, the American shipyards were set to work, and by 1922 14,738,500 tons gross were on the American register. Many of these ships, State-built and State-owned, had been so ; hastily; constructed —some of wood, and others of concrete—that they were uneconomic. Hundreds of them have since been broken up as useless, • but the Americans still possess 11,355,3G7 tons: gross, and, apart from the shipping on the Great Lakes, they rank as the second; commercial maritime Power of tho world. V . :! ■ ■ UNPARALLELED. The British proportion of ocean-go-ing ■ tonnage—-that is vessels of • large size and-good speed—is 38.47, and the American proportion 19.80, the Germans coming next with 7.93 per cent. In the* liistory of sea transport'there is no parallel to this expansion, and, in spite of prohpecies to the contrary, officers and men have been procured to man this, greatly increased-fleet at rates of pay which are necessarily higher than those paid on British ships, and very much, higher than the rates in other merchant navies.' Bemarkable as has bc.cn':the .progress, tho people of the United States are not satisfied. They are; determined to persevere until they own as much shipping as is under tho British flag...' . ;The.first phase in the shipping movement/was admittedly a failure. The State, having built and paid for 2500 ships, it was decided that the State should operate them, thus making, as was hoped, a handsome profit. So the Shipping Board concerted plans for .placing as many of the vessels as possible on the trade routes. But the greater, number of vessels commissionfid, either-directly by the Fleet Corporation—a , subsidiary of the Shipping Boards —or indirectly, private shipowners acting, as agents, the heavier the loss. At last the deficit became so large that it was decided to abandon this experiment in State Socialism. The Americans, rich as they were, rebelled. Orders were issued 'that the ships should be sold to; American shipowners at very low prices, and that the unsaleable tonnage should be broken up. This dual operation is approaching completion, and a .'beginning has been made, with the new policy of assisting the private shipowner ' with State funds to build and operate shipping on all the trade routes of the'world.

BUILDING MORE,

During the interval which elapsed between the admission of the ■ failure of State ownership and the inauguration of the., new policy of subsidised private ownership, little or no shipbuilding took place. Of the seagoing vessels under the American flag only 4.1 per cent.! are less than five years old, as compared with 22.5 per cent, in the British merchant navy. So, though 25 per cent, of the ships of the United States are laid up in ' idleness because there are insufficient cargoes available, the American shipyards, in addition to the many'men-of-war which are now under construction, are actively engaged in turning out merchant ships. They have on the slips about 300,000 tons, ranking consequently.' second to the British yards, and many more vessel's are about to be laid down. British shipping, in common with other industries, is burdened with national taxation three times as heavy as American taxation. That disparity is due, in some degree, to the payment of £32,000,000 which is being made ftaoli year to the United States on account of the munitions supplied to the

Allies during the Great War. The Americans did not lend money, but they supplied munitions, which were sold at war prices. The position -was sum-, marised in the following words by a broadminded American business men: "We, tho Croesus nation, demand of struggling, staggering England not only the 4000 million . dollars wo let her have, but seven thousand million dollars more, because she must have time in which to pay. Because she is in trouble we charge her 7000 million dollars (£.1,400,000,000) for time." . FOR THE ALLIES. As a matter of fact tho debt was incurred on behalf of all the Allies. General Pershing, who commanded the raw American armies Taised in 1917, has admitted that American-made munitions were used in avoiding defeat during the time which elapsed before the Americans were in a condition to fight. "We gave the money, knowing it would be used to hold the Boche until wo could prepare," he said.""Fifteen months! Think of it! We scut our first men in June, and they were not ready to go into the front line until tho following year." The payment of the sum of £1,984,000,000 which the British taxpayers have agreed to pay over a scries of years ill settlement of the debt can be made only by means of goods or services, the latter including shipping freights on American exports and imports, for half the gold of the world is already stored in American vaults.