STATE-OWNED

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4577, 1 May 1922, Page 3

STATE-OWNED

PROTEST OVER PRIVILEGE.BY PRIVATE INTERESTS. (By Electric Cable—Copyright.) (Aust.-N.Z. Cabla Association.) , (Reuter.) (Received May 1, 9.50 a.m.) London, April 29. Tho chief item on the agenda paper of the International Shipping Confeiencc, to bo held in London in October next, will deal with grievances a? regards the immunity of Stateowned shipping from liability to taxation. The Chamber of Shipping, which supports the views of the Committee of 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, although, on the contrary, possessing the right of recovery. An even graver threat to shipping and the prosperity of overseas trade is tho immunity of State-owned ships from income tax- in their own country, and a claim for immunity from taxation iu every other country, also immunity from the safety regulations relating to cargo, pnssengers, and crew. •It is proposed that an international convention be framed placing Stateowned maritime property on precisely the same footing as that privatelyowned.