NEWCOMERS TO THE FLAG

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 3, 4 July 1938, Page 8

NEWCOMERS TO THE FLAG

When war is being waged between tw,o factions in a country —between rebels and a Government that is relatively weak in sea and air power —ships supplying Government ports with goods run the gauntlet of attack. Such ships look for help to high freights and to the protection of their own respective Governments. At first sight the British Government appears to be a good Government to sail under, because the British Navy is strong and its protection of the flag, when flown by merchantmen, has become a naval tradition. Ships already on the British register look for naval help against illegal attack and are not averse to accepting naval help even when the legal issues are confused; and, in order to secure the same advantages, ships on foreign registers transfer to the British register when about to engage in risky high freight traffic, their owners being of opinion that high freights and a new flag provide a double standby. But the present British Government looks with misgivings on the Spanish operations of its merchantmen, both those which have long carried the flag and those which carry it by recent adoption. The Government is not willing to let high profit-making ships use the letter of the law to drag the Navy into operations that might lead to a wider war. The war-risk represented by these British-registered ships might become intolerable if the practice of obtaining British registration, to cover a risky trade, were adopted on a large scale. However, the numbers given in a Government reply in the House of Commons are not as great as has sometimes been suggested—it appears that out of 43 British-regis-tered ships damaged in Spain, the number that were transferred, to the British flag after the outbreak of war is 12. But the figure is large enough to provide an additional argument for the Chamberlain policy, which is to choose the lesser of two evils, by looking rather philosophically upon the losses of merchantmen who adopt or use the flag in a lucrative and risky trade, '< instead of (like Germany) answering bombs with guns. It is to be feared that Opposition zeal for the protection of the adventurers is founded less on principle than on the temporary circumstance that the cause favoured by Labour is dei ficient in aircraft and ships. Should ; the reverse be the case, the Opposition would probably be prepared to support the Chamberlain Government's policy, but the unkind sug-

gestion is heard that, in reversed circumstances, the Chamberlain policy would never have been born. Innuendoes, however, do not outweigh the fact that the Chamberlain policy represents safety first, and squares with the ideas of most nonpartisans who look exclusively to the maintenance of the general peace, even at some cost to precedents in the protection of the mercantile marine.