BRITISH SHIPPING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23320, 13 April 1939, Page 13

BRITISH SHIPPING

FACTOR IN WARTIME LESS FEAR OF SUBMARINES UNION SECRETARY'S VIEWS NEW, CONDITIONS FOR SEAMEN £BT TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] WELLINGTON. Wednesday Whether the reduced tonnage of British mercantile shipping, as compared with that available during the Great War, was likely to have a serious effect in tho event of hostilities was discussed by Mr. W. It. Spence, C.8.E., general secretary of the National Union of Seamen of Great Britain, in an interview on his arrival by the Wanganella from Sydney to-day. Ho said there were certainly fewer ships, „ but their individual tonnages were greater. Mr. Spcnce stated that the question was whether it was wiser to have fewer ships with a big aggregate tonnage or more smaller ships representing about the same tonnage, and he was not in a position to determine that. The point to bo remembered was that the liability to submarine attack was greater with more ships, but, from whajt he had been able to gather, the British coun-ter-measures against submarines were very highly developed. 9

No Conscription Planned He did not think there was anything like the same concern regarding the submarino menace as existed during the Great War. There was conscription of men serving in the mercantile marine during tho Great War, and they were again exempt under the national service registration scheme operating in Britain. They had played their part nobly from 1914 to 1918, and they would do it again. Mr. Spence is on a holiday trip prior to his retirement from office next year after 10 years' service. He remarked that during this period there had been a vast change in tho organisation of the union and an entirely different policy had been followed, both politically and industrially. Improvements brought about in the accommodation and tho manning of ships and in conditions generally could «he described as a revolution in the British mercantile marine, and had been achieved by agreement and not by conflict. There was ample machinery for dealing with disputes, and, while it was sometimes slow, it was nevertheless sure. Resources ol Ur.ion

Before he left home on February 17, Mr. Spence said, he laid the founda-tion-stone of a new £IOO,OOO national headquarters of the union at Clapham. Showing the vastness of the organisation, he mentioned that its assets at the end of 1938 were £411,793, excluding hidden reserves of about £120,000. The membership of the union was 50,000, and the union was also an approved society under the Health Insurance Act, with a membership of 40,000.

In addition to being at present a member of the general council of the British Trades Union Congress, Mr. Spence was a member of the Merchant Shipping Advisory Committee which Mas concerned with the question of the crew's quarters on the- new liner Dominion Monarch. He had read in the Sydney newspapers of the stewards' complaint, and he was able to say definitely that the accommodation provided for the crew of the Dominion Monarch was a great improvement on anything in a ship of similar size now afloat. He could say that after having seen some of the provision made for the stewards under the rules of the British Board of Trade. Mr. Spence will leave Auckland on April 18 for Vancouver en route to England.