TRADE FUTURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 27 March 1919, Page 2

TRADE FUTURE

I BRIGHT OVTLVOK TOR SHIPPING I LOUD iNCBCAPF’S OPTIMISM.

! Lord Incheape contributes to Sperjmg’s Journal a striking article on, the future of British shipping, in which he discusses the prospects of the industry and the conditions necessary for its revival, tie is supremely confident that ihe British mercatile marine can recover all the ground lost or relinquished during the war, if only it is left, alone, and givep a Iree hand. The main thing needed is ‘'release from the trammels of Whitehall.’* Given tha: and the repeat'or modification of the Excess Profits Duty, the shipping trade will face the future with entire confidence, undaunted by the threatened American competition and the possi billy of labour troubles. Appended are extracts; “So far as shipping is concerned, the Government has definitely repudiated all ideas of nationalisation. It follows necessarily from this that ’he State must withdraw from the shipbuilding business, and that the national yards will a: some time or other pass into private hands. The question of principle, in other wbids, may be - taken 'as settled ; the greatest monument of individual energy and initiative which the world has ever seen—and the Pri- ; tish mercantile marine is nothing ‘leas than tha*—is not going to be turned over to the always bungling, always di-! , latory, 'administration of Whitehall. 1 You cannot run commerce ou» a ays’em lof coupons. You cannot run anybusi-

jnpss if at every turn your freedom ’of 'action is’manacled by bureaucratic red I tape, and if you have to interview and I argue with a bos: 'of officials in order to get permission to trade at all. But least of all can' the shipping industry be condhe’ed On these lines. It is an extremely technical industry, it s managers have to be in intimate and daily touch with trade ■all over the world, they must be men of speculative courage; and they must also have the capacity for making instantaneous decisions. These are , precisely; the"qutilities that you do not find, and cannot | expect to ’’ find, in Government office. j’J h.v, one of the reasons why I do jpot greatly fear the prospect of having to compete with the Government-built, Governmen*-owned, and Governmentmanaged shipping of the United States. chipping industry dpe s not need to be ‘reconstructed.’ It can recons’fuct itself. What' it does need is release from, the trammels of Whitehall. T‘s leaders are entirely confident of their ability to win back the ground they have been forced W yield during the war so long aa'tliCy are allowed to manage ■ their Business in their own way. The shipping industry asks nothing Troth the GOvernjnent in the • way of positive assistance. Its "main desire is to be let alone, and to b© given a free hand. If their ships are restored to them just rapidly as national interests’ permit' if such vessels as still have to he retained in the Government service are chartered at market rates, if demobilieaion is carried out as far as possible by Government-owned ships » and by enemy tonnage, if the financial discrimination that ha#; been practised j

the' shipping industry i« put an i end to, and if nothing is done *0 change the established fiscal policy of I this country or to Interf£re with the | free flow of commerce, shipowners .wijl be well content, will face the future j with confidence, arid ’ will 'not rest in their determination to restore the Red Ensign to its old position. ■