OPPOSITION MOVE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 March 1940, Page 5

OPPOSITION MOVE

COMMONS DEBATE

CONTROL OF BRITISH SHIPPING,

(Per British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, March 18.

In the House of Commons the Opposition moved a motion relating to the Ministry of Shipping, regret-tins; the absence of efficiency, and foresight in the administration of the Ministry, and calling for...the speedy expansion of the shipbuilding programme. It was contended .there is serious misdirection of tonnage, and waste of facilities, lack of use of shipbuilding resources, and under-state-ment of shipping losses, which has, in the first six months of war, been three-quarters of a million tons. Replying, Sir Arthur Salter explained that, under the requisitioning system, the Ministry was able to make a plan as a whole. He said that 80 per cent of what came to Britain in British ships came as part of the programme for the Ministry of Flood, or the Ministry of Supply. Sir Arthur spoke of there being real combination of shipowners and civil servants, and he described the suggestion of the ascendancy *of the latter as “fantastic.” He continued that tonnage required to. carry exports from Britain was available, although here and there a route or a time might experience difficulty. Britain, he said, would need not only the efforts ot u. Navy and the mercantile marine, but tiie full co-operation of the public, both in their homes and in industry, if the enemy attacks on British ships were to be overcome.

. Dealing with the losses at sea, Sir Arthur said that British ships are being lost at the rate of one hundred thousand tons a month, but he pointed ou|L that, in the whole four and a quarter years of the last war the average rate was over ioU,OOO tons « month. “And after four years ;Ol : that loss,” lie said, “when, our tonnage was lower than it is' at present; we were still • maintains aw army of pwo millions in France* and > ‘ some halfdozen other expeditions • as well.