SHIPPING AFTER THE WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 50, 28 February 1918, Page 4

SHIPPING AFTER THE WAR.

WHAT WILL THE POSITION BE?

The possibilities of an attempt being made to nationalise the shipping industry after the war were referred to byLord Inchcape at the last annual meeting of the P. and O. Company. Lord Inchcape stated that all shipping was now being worked on Government account. He said they made no complaint while the war was on, but they did want an assurance that when the war ended they would be released from the position of Civil servants, and that I the incentive to individual enterprise and initiative would be theirs again. "Attempts," he said, have been made to get some declaration of the Government as to their attitude to shipping after the war. This; i§ only natural, in view of the fact. that_ •Government has embarked in the building of merchant ships. We are frequently assured that there is no intention of nationalising shipping, but so far no official pronouncement has been made- The nearest approach to this, is a remark recently made by the 'Chancellor of the Exchequer that the amount now, being invested in standard ships will come back to the Treasury after the war when the ships are sold. We constantly hear eulogies passed- on the services which the mercantile marine has rendered to the country during this war. We see it reDorted that Germany and other countries are to help shipowners to rebuild their fleets,; and at the same time we observe a disposition on the part of a certain section in this country, notwithstanding all that shipowners by their enterprise and energy have done for the nation, to wrest their business from them and to work the shipping as a national affair. No wonder there is considerable unre3t on the Dart of owners. No wonder fleets are being sold. The wonder is that anyone can be found to have the courage to buy them ! I may be wrong, but I am sanguine enough to hope that, no Government will be so ill-advised as to kill the shipowning industrv of the British Empire and to try and work it as a Government concern, and I go further than this and I say if they p.ttempt to interfere with it or to control it while they cannot control that of other countries they will land it in ruin. Meantime, the cash resources of the P. and 0. Company and its allies, which in ordinary circumstances would have been put into new ships, havo been lent to the Government to help to finance the war. These resources will be available to pay f°r new tonnage when we are permitted to build new ships. If it should be eviden*. that such a time is never tp come and that it is the intention to wipe «rifc private enterprise and to turn the British mercantile marine into a fitnte Department managed by officials tied up with red tape, then we shall distribute our resources among our shareholders, after making proper nrovision for our employees, make our bow and let the curtain fall on what has been the supremacy of British mercantile shipping on the seven seas."