GERMAN SHIPBUILDING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 7

GERMAN SHIPBUILDING.

ASSISTED BY STATE. EFBECTIVE FORM OF SUBSIDY. Immediately after the British Government’s statement-, obviously made in perfect good faith, that the German snipyards are not receiving any State subsidy for the construction of ships to foreign order comes (says a writer in Engineering) the news that the railways have again reduced their rates on shipbuilding materials by between 30 and Ob per cent. Such a reduction is of importance to German shipbuilding, and there can be no doubt that this is a very effective form of subsidy. The railways are owned by the State, and the carriage of plates and ship materials from the inland iron and coal areas to the shipbuilding districts on the coast has always been a very large item in the expense account of a German shipyard. In the very early days of the German navy, when the Imperial dockard at Wilhelmshaven was first established for the construction of raen-of-war, tfio kingdom ot Hanover refused to allow- a railway to oe laid within its borders, the result being that all the materials had to be taken to Wilhelmshaveu by sea at an excessive cost. In those days practically all the other German yards bought their materials in England and imported them direct, out this has always been a sore point with the German industrialists. In 1873 a great victory was gained when Marshal Stosch ordered that all German raen-of-war were to bo constructed in Germany and as far as possible with German materials, Bismarck followed -this by insisting that all ships that took advantage of the subsidies granted under his Imperial mail scheme should bo built in German yards also, and, as they already had the privilege of bringing British shipbuilding materials: into the country free of costs, he offered a sop to the iron industry by ordering the railway administration to reduce its rate ou shipbuilding material by nearly 50 per cent. Without concession it is doubtful whether the North Gorman Lloyd could have fulfilled the conditions of the Imperial mail contract without collapsing altogether. This concession has been in force ever since, and has had a very material effect on the fortunes of tho German shipbuilding industry. As German shipbuilding material is already very much cheaper than British, this latest reduction in transport charges will enable the German shipyards to underbid on new construction even more than they have contrived to do hitherto, and its importance will not be lost upon shipbuilding interests in Britain.