A SHIPPING MENACE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 214, 24 August 1931, Page 7

A SHIPPING MENACE

When the Jones-White Act of the United States provided a ship-build-ing fund of £50,000,000 to be lent at a very low rate of interest so as to encourage the building of mail-carry-ing ships it attracted no attention m New Zealand. At the same time Congress authorised the Postmaster-Gen-eral to grant mail subsidies on a scale that has never been approached by any other country, and again it seemed to be no concern of the Dominion, But that the policy should have claimed our attention is shown now by the establishment of an American line to New Zealand and Australia, carrying an enormous annual subsidy. The object of the American policy is to challenge British shipping supremacy and from that point of view the movement has an important political significance. America has placed an embargo on British ships trading between Honolulu and the Pacific coast, and on coastal trade, but the American line has the freedom of the Pacific. The theory of competition is sound enough if the competitors stand on a comparatively equal footing, but a contest between the American company and British interests in these southern seas for trans-Pacifio trade would be so obviously loaded in favour of the American competitor that ships flying the British flag would soon disappear. Appeals are being made in the Uniteci States to their travellers, manufacturers, and merchants to patronise their own ships rather than those of other nations. A similar appeal should be made to the people of New Zealand and Australia. America points to the employment consequent upon activity in shipping. Australia and the Dominion would do well to consider the additional unemployment that would follow any short-sighted policy on their part, resulting in the loss of a large share of trans-Pacific trade. The imperative claims of self-protection demand that measures be taken by the Governments of New Zealand and Australia to deal with this American challenge for shipping supremacy in the Pacific.