GIANT CUNARDER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 307, 11 December 1931, Page 5

GIANT CUNARDER

CONSTRUCTION STOPPED. THOUSANDS OF WORKERS AFFECTED. (United Press Association—By CableCopyright.) (Reoeived 11, 1.35 p.m.) London, Dec. 10. The construction of the new Cunard liner, at a cost of 4| millions, employing three thousand workers at John Brown’s shipyards at Clydebank, has been suspended owing to the economic situation. The Cunard company officially states that provision for depreciation would result in an adverse balance in the profit and loss account, consequently there would not be a net profit from which to pay the ordinary dividend or the second half-year’s preferences. The revenue in 1931 would be £2,420,000 less than an 1930. The economies represented £1,780,000. The hank balance at the end of the year would be £1,100,000. New ships, the company states, must earn depreciation on the old, but this is impossible this year for the first time in many years, owing to the decline in the trans-Atlaaric traffic which seemed limitless A shipbuilding authority says that the cessation of work on the Cunarder is almost the last straw. Seventy pre cent, of the shipbuilders at Clydeside are already idle. The stoppage will affect thousands of workmen throughout the world.