STATE SHIPPING FAILURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18020, 20 February 1922, Page 6

STATE SHIPPING FAILURE.

The decision of the United States Government to sell the vessels under the control of the Shipping Board means that America will finally cut her loss and leave ocean transportation to private enterprise. The history of the Shipping Board is one in which Americans take little pride. It performed admirable service during the war when, from a national point of view, it was highly desirable that ships should be built even if they were not of the highest class. Apart from this crisis State direction of shipping and shipbuilding has proved uniformly unsuccessful. The Emergency Shipping Corporation far outran the emergency which created it and bought heavily on the peak of an inflated market. The wooden ships, built of timber in which birds were nesting at the time the plans were made, have proved of little commercial value and they were recently sold at almost nominal figures. The majority of the steel ships built by established firms were serviceable vessels, but some turned out by new establishments _ and fabricating yards were almost, if not quite, unseaworthy. Add to all this the severe slump in the price of shipping since the American mercantile marine was bought or built and it will be apparent that a heavy loss will remain to be written off when the last vessel is sold. Presumably the Government has come to the conclusion that it is better to face this final loss than a continuing loss on the operation of the vessels. When the present chairman of the Shipping Board assumed that position he made the statement: " America's shipping business is the most colossal commercial wreck the world has ever seen and the financial backing of tho Government alone prevents it being the greatest bankruptcy ever recorded." The nominal loss of the board has been £4,000,000 a month ; the real loss is believed to have been nearer £7,000,000. Of the 1470 vessels now to be offered for sale only about 470 are actually in commission, the remainder being laid up. The official description of the ships is that " one-third of the number, comprising nearly one-half of the tonnage in dead-weight, are excellent commercial vessels, onethird are fair commercial vessels, and the balance, for all practical purposes, are a total loss." ,The State will have a substantial sum to write off on its own operations, but it would be a mistake to suppose that it will cease to interest itself in shipping enterprise. The avowed policy of the Government is to foster American shipping by all means in its power and its administration will continue to be entirely sympathetic to shipowners. It is safest to assume that American competition at sea is only now beginning, though it is permissible to assume also that British shipowners, with their greater experience and more extensive 'organisation, will bo able to meet it successfully.