MERCANTILE MARINE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 99, 5 April 1922, Page 2

MERCANTILE MARINE.

CUNARD AND ASSOCIATED LINES.

SOME INTERESTING SPEECHES.

London, Feb. 14.

Sir James Allen and Mr R. P. Skinner (United States Consul-General) were the principal guests at the London staff" dinner of the Cunard and Associated Lines. This great combination of companies includes, besides the Cunard, the Anchor Line, Messrs T. and J. Brocklebank, American-Levant ,and the Commonwealth, and Dominion Line. Although a private dinner, where speeches wore not worded to’ meet the requirements of the Press, there were none the less some interesting statements concerning the present position of the shipping trade and its prospects for the future. Sir William Corry (a director both of the Cunard anjd of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line) was in the chair, and in his opening speech facetiously remarked that Sir James Allen s presence inspired him to suggest that the New Zealand Government should take off their 15 per cent tax and reduce it to the pre-war level of 5 jjer cent. Mr A. D. Mearns (general manager of the Cunard Line) gave a resume of the activities of the parent company as well as some facts concerning the associated companies. During the year he said, the Commonwealth and Dominion Line had instituted a new direct service from Middlesbrough, Hull, Antwerp, and London, to New Zealand, via Panama. The company had twenty sailings from United Kingdom ports, carrying 94,000 tons of cargo to Australia and New Zealand; and fourteen sailings from New York, carrying 84,000 tons of cargo. On the homeward run the company’s steamers had carried a total of 2,295,000 carcases of mutton and lamb, 272,000 quarters of beef, 504,000 boxes of butter and crates of cheese, 57,000 crates of frozen rabbits, and 47,000 packages of fruit. In addition, the company brought 317,000 bales of wool and 931,000 bags of wheat and flour and cereals. Two of the company’s new steamers, he Ridded, which are building at Belfast, the Port Auckland and Port Campbell, were to be delivered in a few months. They would each be capable of carrying 120,000 carcases of mutton, and should be valuable additions to the fleet, OIL FUEL LINERS.

Delelopments in the Cunard Company included the acquisition of the Albania and the Imperator, which was re-named the Berengaria. This latter vessel was converted to oil fuel, and when the Mauretania had to be laid up for repairs owing to fire, the company decided to take the opportunity of converting her, too, to oil fuel. Other new vessels launched during the year were the Antonia, the Ausonia, the Laconia, and the Andania. The Scythia, the second of the post-yar Cunaijdcrs, sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool. The spring would see a weekly service to New York, and three of the new ships would sail direct from the Mersey to Quebec, and Montreal. The Aquit■ania, Berengflria, and Mauretania would resume the full express service from Southampton and Cherbourg to New York. All oil fuel burners, they would constitute indubitably the fastest and certainly the finest ocean-going service in the world. MUTUAL INTERESTS. Sir James Allen, in replying to tin. toast of the guests, said that he had very great pleasure in being associated with the representative of the United States. People in jhe Dominion from which he came had a very close connexion with the United States —their relations with this great English-speaking people wero probably more intimate than were those of the Motherland. Though they were trade rivals, just as England and the States were rivals in shipping; they wished them well. They’ had to compete with America in fair trade, and competition led to business. He wished to express his appreciation of the magnificent work which was being done by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line and those lines which built the great ships which traded with New Zealand. Without them the country would not be able to do the business they desired to do, and without the trade of the Dominion and the Commonwealth those great shipping companies would not be able to carry on the great work they were doing. These lines wore a credit to the nation. They had, by linking up the nations of the British Empire, helped to bring us to the proud position we now held. New Zealanders appreciated to the full, and always would appreciate, the magnificent services rendered to them during the war by the Mercantile Marine. They were proud of the British Navy, but they were equally proud of the Mercantile Marine. He knew some stories of heroic self-sacrifice which when recorded by the historian of the future would stir the imaginations of those who read them. In the Dominion they had a land the possibilities of which had only been touched upon. He noped for ships of greater capacity and biore frequent services as the country progressed. “We feel and rightly feel, that our prosperity is linked up with the propcrity of the groat shipping companies, of some of which we are the honoured guests to-night.” STABILITY AND EFFICIENCY. The Cunard Line ho knew little or nothing about, but it had always been associated with stability and efficiency. They were quite ready to compete with tneir fellow English-speaking race across the Atlantic, and in that healthy competition they would take their chances. He was not going to say that the British could win, but he hoped they would win. He wished them success and ever greater success. It was true that the people of the Dominion had grievances. They would like a reduction in freights. They were trying to turn the vessels round quicker in Dominion waters, and they hoped they would be turned round quicker in London. These and other improvements they looked for. They could, however, rely upon the heads' of the great shipping firms to uphold the traditions of the past and to make provision in the future, as in the past, for maintaining the only links which bound the countries of the Empire together.