THE MERCHANT NAVY

Evening Star, Issue 22626, 19 April 1937, Page 3

THE MERCHANT NAVY

SHORTAGE OF MEN AND SHIPS DISTURBING FACTS i All is not well with the merchant navy, writes the naval correspondent of the London ‘Observer.’ There is a shortage of seamen and ships which might well prove disastrous ,in any national emergency, a The two sea services are interdependent and indivisible, as was clearly shown in the Great War. It, is still the Navy’s task to protect our 85,000 miles of sea communications to ensure, so far as is possible, the' safe transport of the imported foodstuffs and raw materials upon which we depend. These commodities are carried in cargo ships, simple freighters. Without our merchant fleet the population of Great Britain will be brought to starvation, her industries must close down, and Britain will become isolated from the other nations of the British Empire, Little or nothing is being done “ to secure the maintenance of a mercantile marine adequate for the needs of the country.” At the moment, it is hopelessly inadequate, and wo live in’a fool’s paradise. The merchant navy is a maritime Cinderella, nobody’s legitimate child. If the Royal Naval Reserve were to be called out to-morrow, many _ merchant vessels would be immobilised. The number of unemployed seamen at 32 ports in the United Kingdom during a recent month was 8,324. Of this number 4,327, or, roughly, 52 per cent., were firemen, greasers, and trimmers, and 2,824, about 34 per cent., stewards, cooks, and other men of the catering department. Only 1,153, or about 14 per cent., were deck hands. The acute shortage has largely been caused by the general slump in the world’s carrying trade, and the natural unwillingness of young men to risk their careers in what seems to them to he a moribund industry. The merchant fleet, with its seamen, has further dwindled in the face of heavily subsidised foreign competition, and as a result of the Government’s “ scrap and build” policy which, since 1934, has required two ships to be broken up for every one built, in order that the tramp section of the industry _ might qualify for the temporary subsidy of £2,000,000. Incidentally, this sum compares ill-favourably with the subsidy of £4,000,000 granted to the sugar-beet industry. ■ UNPALATABLE TRUTHS. Britain now possesses over 1,000 fewer cargo-carriers than in 1914. It has been calculated that after allowing for probable war Josses, this represents a shortage of at least 700 ships in the number required to feed and maintain the country. It is the sober and unpals’tahlo truth that the merchant navy feels disgruntled and neglected because it is nobody’s child, and has no on© primarily interested in fighting its battles. Lip-service was paid in profusion after the war, but there it ended. It is well known, and I .have seen it for myself, that ships flying the American, Dutch. Scandinavian, and German ensigns are better manned, better founds and provide better living conditions than many British ships. At the most modest estimate, and of my personal knowledge, 80 per cent, of the officers and men of this essential service would cheerfully leave the sea, and for good, if they could find work ashore. This is not to the advantage or credit of a nation which is supposed to have salt in its blood, and depends upon the sea for its very existence.