NOT ENOUGH SHIPS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 48, Issue 2886, 29 March 1939, Page 7

NOT ENOUGH SHIPS

POSITION OF GREAT BRITAIN TRAMP TONNAGE DEFICIENCY The report of the Deep Sea Tramp Fact-Finding Committee, published by the Chamber of Shipping, lays emphasis on the vital part which tramp ships play in ocean transport. “The feeding of the nation and the supply of raw materials to industry,” it states, “are dependent upon the maintenance of an adequate supply of tramp tonnage. In time of war’ or emergency the existence and defence of the nation w*ould largely depend upon the possession of sufficient tramp tonnage under the British flag.”

Since pre-war days,- it is pointed out, the United Kingdom has tended to obtain its overseas supplies from more distant sources (writes the shipping corresporident of the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post). The average distance of our sources of wheat and cane sugar, for example, is now 6000' miles.

During the past 18 years foreign countries have substantially increased and are still increasing their tramp tonnage, while that of Great Britain has more or less progressively declined.

As a result, Great Britain now owns less tonnage than before the war, while foreign countries own much more. In particular, Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Norway have been flooding the market with tonnage. State Help The report fully explains why foreign tramp shipping enjoys an advantage in competition with British

vessels. Some of the reasons for this are the lower capital cost of foreign ships, built in many cases with State aid, or purchased second-hand at very low prices; lower running costs; Government subsidies and indirect aids; much greater increase in building, repair, and running costs in the United Kingdom than abroad, due largely to rearmament. How the difficulties of the tramp shipping industry are reacting on shipbuilding is disclosed in the following table of British tramp ships ordered in the last three years:— Gross Vessels tons 1936 -- .... 56 277,280 19'37 -- -- 18 86,080 1938 (11 mths). 5 24,380 As long as present conditions and prices exist there is little prospect, states the committee, of further replacement vessels being ordered. High Speed Rivals In comparison, there are now being built, for competition with British tramps, a large number of modern high-speed foreign tramp and cargo liners, especially for Italy, Japan, Scandinavian countries.

The report concludes: “The vital part which the British tramp shipping industry contributes to the country’s balance of trade by way of invisible exports and its position in the general scheme of national defence make the problem one of the utmost importance to the nation which cannot wholly be solved by the industry alone.”