SHIPPING PROBLEMS

Evening Star, Issue 17956, 1 May 1922, Page 6

SHIPPING PROBLEMS

. STATE COMPETITION. OWNERS RESENT DISCRIMINATION. Frew Aicnc.iation—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, April 29. (Received May 1, at 9.50 a.m.) The chief item on the agenda of the International Shipping Conference, which is to be held in London in October, will deal with grievances as regards the immunity of State-owned shipping from liability to taxation. The Chamber of Shipping, which supports the views of the Committee Maritime International, declares that private shipowners are gravely prejudiced, especially when vessels or cargoes are employed for ordinary commercial purposes. It points out that a sovereign State cannot be sued for collision damage, salvage, or towage rendered, although on the contrary it possesses the light of recovery; while an even graver threat to shipping and (lie prosperity of overseas trade is the immunity of State-owned ships from income tax in their own country, and the claim for immunity from taxation in every other country, also imrnunity from the safety regulations relating to cargo, passengers, and crow. It is proposed that an international convention shall bo framed placing Stateowned maritime property on precisely the same footing as private owned. —Reuter.