WASTE OF SHIPS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 121, 20 April 1940, Page 8

WASTE OF SHIPS.

SIR A. HURD’S COMPLAINT. ' LONDON, March 21. Sir Archibald Hurd, the shipping expert, supports the calculation of Mr E. Shimvell, Labour M.P., that Britain has only 10,000,000 tons of effective shipping, and not 18,000,000 tons, as was recently stated by the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr Churchill). Sir Archibald Hurd, who is chairman of the Shipping World, Ltd., and was the author of the official history ot the Merchant Nn.vy in the Great War. and also joint editor of Brassey’s Naval and Shipping Annual, in a letter to the Times, adds that, in consequence of this, the losses suffered represented a much heavier reduction of Britain’s carrying capacity than Mr Churchill led the country to imagine. The percentages which had been worked out by the Government would be valueless, even if the ships requisitioned by the Ministry of Shipping i were being used to the best advantage; 'but as civil servants, and not tho owners, were directing the voyages, and as the knowledge and experience of the owners, brokers, and agents were not being used, there was still a grievous waste of carrying capacity. Sir Archibald Hurd adds that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping (Sir Arthur Salter) had not explained that Britain had started the last war with 1,000.000 tons more shipping than in this war, and the Government was not concerning itself with the future of the ship-| ping industry. After seven months of j war, the shipowners did not know how much they would receive for the use of their property, nor whether their ship losses would be made good on terms which would enable new ships to be employed profitably. “Nothing in tbedlouse of Commons debate hacf suggested that the late of Britain's most essential industry was in the balance,” Sir'Archibald Hurd concluded.