MERCHANT SHIPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23404, 21 July 1939, Page 9

MERCHANT SHIPS

TITAL PART IN WAR NEED FOR PROTECTION " FROM EMPIRE . TO ISLAND " BILL BEFORE COMMONS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received July 20, 6.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 10 In the House of Commons to-day, Mr. Oliver Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, moved the second reading of the Shipping Assistance Bill. He said that merchant shipping would be vital in time of war, which might be within a measurable . period. "A diminution of shipping would cause us to revert overnight from an Empire to an island," said the Minister. "Germany has regained her 1914 position after the extinction of her mercantile marine, and Italy and Japan have trebled theirs. The Government cannot stand by and not attempt to assist the industry to meet subsidised and unfair competition often from noneconomic motives. "The Government considers it is urgent that the British shipbuilding yard should immediately be filled, and for that reason some of the proposals are of an emergency character." Liner shipping was in a special category. The Government would constitute a committee, consisting of a chairman and two members of the Board of Trade, to consider applications for assistance on their merits. It would be necessary to show that owing to foreign subsidised competition a line was endangered. Assistance would be limited to £10,000.000, with an experimental period of two years. A Labour amendment, proposed by Mr. E. Shinwell (Seaham, Durham) was defeated by 224 votes to 141, and the bill was read a second time. The defeated amendment was to the effect that the House regretted that assistance was not to be accompanied by a measure of public control and the reorganisation of the industry, also by an application to the National Maritime Board for an agreement in respect to the wages of crews. REMOVING GERMANS HITLER'S PRECEDENT SOUTH TYROL EXPULSIONS WIDER APPLICATION SUGGESTED a ' (Received July 20, 6.10 p.m.) British Wireless LONDON, July 19 The Marquis of Clydesdale asked in the House of Commons to-day whether, in ..view of the fact that although the South Tyrol is the only place in Europe where frontier revision provides a simple solution of a racial problem Herr Hitler apparently prefers settling this problem by a scheme to remove the German population from their land,

steps will be taken to obtain detailed information regarding this scheme, with the. view to the application of similar principles in case of other German demands. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mi R. A. Butler, replied that Britain's representatives in Germany and Italy were reporting on developments in the plan dealing with the problem of the South Tyrol, of which full details were not yet fivailable. Britain would bear in mind the possible applicability of these principles to other areas. Lord Clydesdale then asked whether, on the information available to tho Foreign Secretary, he thought Herr Hitler would prefer war to settling his demands by a scheme such as that operating in the South Tyrol, and did the Foreign Secretary also think that Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini had initiated a new principle for solving racial problems by negotiation rather than by war; or on the other/hand, was he (Lord Clydesdale) to understand that Herr Hitler had, for the sake of expediency, shown himself as treacherous to his own people as he was to Mr. Chamberlain at Munich. Mr. Butler replied: "I think we can all draw conclusions from tho actions taken." PRICE ITALY PAYS ADRIATIC PORT FOR GERMANY USE FOR TROOP MOVES LONDON, July 15 It is suggested in London that the granting to Germany of a free zono I in tho Italian Adriatic port of Trieste is tho "price Italy pays for Germany agreeing to transfer tho German population from the Tyrol, and thus rornovo a possible source of friction between tho two countries. Germany lias been operating Triesto as a free port for at least a month and the Italian authorities no longer oxerciso any control. Policing is entirely in tho hands of the German Gestapo (secret polieo). A considerable number of German troops liavo been embarking for Libya every week, Italy providing the transports and using, methods much the same as those used to land German troops in Spain. Groups of 300 to 400 arrive, clad in civilian clothes or labour battalion uniforms. Military equipment arrives in packing cases and is not distributed until the transports reach tho open Bea*