FOREIGN SHIPPING MENACE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1933, Page 10

FOREIGN SHIPPING MENACE

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The Press cables of recent days have given us definite information about the vast- sums of money being freely given as grants and subsidies to -American shipping ; companies to build and ruii their "palatial" liners', but so far I have seen no comment about the direful effect this very unfair competition is having upon British shipping and consequently upon the purchasing power of ■ the British people. The comment was supplied by the lU. Tlou. Lord Lloyd, ex-High Commissions lor Egypt and the' Sudan, who was the principal speaker at the Empire Day dinner of the Royal Empire^ Society in May last, and I quote from his'speech as. follows:— "One more class'of Empire worker who is in a very bad way today, and in some ways the most important of the lot because he is the link of Empire, is the-sea-man of Old England. Tho mercantile marine of this * country is practically ruined by the concerted attacks of foreign Governments upon our erstwhile maritime supremacy, There are more than 30 countries today definitely discriminating against our ships. Thirts' millions arc being paid in foreign subsidies against our chipping. How could any trade stand up against this? The earnings of Uritit.li shipping which used, in 1020, to be £340,000,000, have dropped now to £65,000,000, and we are,spending £6,000,000 a year on the-dole to British seamen alone." ■ .... Is it any wonder that the price of our dairy products in the British market, our only market, is once again falling steadily: And yet -we find hundeeds o£ our people regularly patronising the foreign vessels and transferring the money provided by our only customers from British shipping to these foreign competitors. . Meanwhile . Parliament talks banalities and does nothing to stop this rot which can only end in national bankruptcy. At least Parliament could copy and adopt the provisions in the American.navigation law and impose a surtax of 200 dollars (£SO sterling at par) on every New Zealand citizen who travels on a foreign steamer between British ports. No doubt freedom 'of action in." a cherished heritage of our race, but it cannot be allowed ,;"•}- ---checked .liberty to hurt the natipnaj welTo agairi.quote Lord Lloyd: i ' "Hero is a task worthy ot a Government to perform. What are^you eoing to do about it? Don't we need Jm Oliver Cromwell in, the Government day? Rightlywas'he thenocalled .The Great Protector,' because when he found British shipping menaced as it was, and as it is now, he did not work with formulas fashioned by Oxford Colleges; he confronted foreign countries with navigation'laws and restored the supremacy, making England once more the Mistress of the Seas.—l am, etc., , . ' J. D. GRAY. Matakana. October 3.