SHIPPING SUBSIDIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 101, 29 March 1939, Page 10

SHIPPING SUBSIDIES

IMPORTANT INDUSTRIES. BRITISH SCHEME. (United Press Association—-By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.; Received March 29, 1.5 p.m. RUGBY, March 28. Subsidies to shipping and ship building wore announced in the House of Commons to-day by Mr Oliver Stanley (President of the Board of Trade) who recalled that the importance of those industries did not rest onlv on the contribution they made to the country’s economic resources, but they were also an essential part of the national defences. Mr Stanley intimated that an annual sum of £2.750,000 would he available over a period of five years for tramp shipping—a scheme following the general lines of the former scheme dating from 1935. As regards liners, it was proposed to appoint an advisory committee for an experimental period of two years to examine the position and advise the Government on requests for assistance from the liner companies whose services were endangered by subsidised foreign competition. Parliament would be asked to make financial provision to enable the Government to grant financial assistance promptly in cases where t.he Government decided it was necessary. In cases in wdiich other parts of the British Commonwealth were concerned there would be a consultation. Mr Stanley, replying to Arthur Evans’s inquiry as to whether the Dominions would be asked fo contribute in respect of cargo liners operating between Britain and the Dominions, declared it would lx? necessary for a specific ease to ho established in respect, of each individual service, ft would be for the Government to consider whether it was appropriate to ask the Dominions to .assist.