INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18543, 2 May 1922, Page 5

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

STATE AND TAXATION. PRIVATE OWNERS PREJUDICED. Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright. * LONDON, April 29. 1 The chief item on the agenda of the International Shipping Conference, which is to be held in London in October, will deal with grievances as regards the immunity of State-owned shipping from liability to taxation. The Chamber of Shipping, which supports the views of the committee of the Maritime International, declares that private shipowners are gravely prejudiced, especially when vessels or cargoes are employed for ordinary commercial purposes. It points out that a sovereign State cannot be sued for collision damage, salvage, or towage rendered, although on the contrary it possesses the right of recovery; while an even graver threat to shipping and the prosperity of overseas trade is the immunity of State-oSvned ships from income tax in their own country, and the claim for immunity from taxation in every other country, also immunity from the safety regulations relating to cargo, passengers, and crew. It is proposed that an international convention shall be framed placing Stateowned maritime property on precisely the same footing as privately owned.—Reuter.