GERMAN MERCHANT FLEET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 January 1925, Page 14

GERMAN MERCHANT FLEET.

VIEWS OF SHIPOWNERS. Although Germany Inis ' recovered about'3,6oo,ooo tons of her pre-war mercantile marine since the armistice, gloomy views are now taken regarding the immediate future. The Association of Hamburg Shipowners says there is no prospect that Germany *, will .be able for some time to come to increase ber present tonnage by building new ships. This association, otherwise known as the Verein Hamburger Rheder, has published an annual report on shipping, the first since 1914. Prior to the war these reports were issued regularly from 1885 onward. In consequence of heavy taxation imposed since the stabilisation of the mark, the report considered that German shipyards may .have to face a hard time in the immediate future’. The cost of construction of a new ship in a German yard is out of all proportion to what the vessel can earn afloat, even ■under favourable circumstances. Owing to the absence of suitable.com. mercial and. maritime treaties with most of the ex-enemy countries, inconvenience is stated to be experienced by German shipowners. It is argued that Germany, having had a merchant fleet of 5.500.000 tons gross register in 19J I to supply the needs of a population of, 65,000.000, should now have 8,000.000 tons of merchant shipping, instead of a little more than a third of this quantity. “In spite of the fact that we are a great industrial country,” the association claims, “we can only nay the war indemnity imposed upon us, if at all on the basis of a big foreign trade. It is for this reason that our income from shinping freights must necessarily be raised if we are to improve our trade balance.”

The report also warns the German Government against adopting a policy of excessive protection, and at the same time warjnly advocates the principles recently laid down at the International Shipping Conference to the effect that every country, while retaining the right to tax its own shipping, should refrain from any attempt to tax the shipping of other nations visiting its ports.