MATSON LINE STEAMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20893, 8 June 1931, Page 13

MATSON LINE STEAMERS.

Sir, —That Mr. Gray requires no assistance is quite evident after a perusal of Mr. Webster's letters. He evades, as it pays him, the only points raised by Mr. Gray: (a) That the shipping laws of tho United Stales are harsh and unfair in their application to foreign shipping when compared with our treatment of their shipping, (b) That it is a determined national policy of the United States to oust the Red Ensign from its pre-war position on tho seas, and _ tho United States Goverment's huge subsidies and grants to help accomplish this policy, (c) Our sublime indifference (just now) to this challenge. Tho only good point in tho whole affair is the blunt admission of the United States Government of its intentions of granting easy financial assistance, huge mail bounties, and shipping to attain this end. We have already seen tho result of tho first phase of this policy in the "£IOOO bag mail contract," which lias sent several of our Pacific traders into "Rotten Row" and their crews ashore to walk our streets—unemployed. We may sec a second and more serious phase of this conflict when the highly-subsidised ships of the Matson Lino send probably tho Aorangi or the Tofua, or both, into "Rotten Row" and their crews of New Zealanders nsfioro to face unemployment and be a charge on our taxpayers. There is a good slogan much in evidence just now, which invites us to "Buy New Zealand goods," and I can only hope that when good New Zealanders go out to buy their oversea passages they will will "buy New Zealand"—buy New Zealand seamen a job and New Zealand capital work. This may disappoint Mr. Webster and his "greatest nation," but it will profit New Zealand. J. H. Beale.