SHIPS AND AEROPLANES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 12

SHIPS AND AEROPLANES

(■SERVICES TO AUSTRALIA. NO SERIOUS COMPETITION. . LONDON, December 8. Addressing the annual meeting of ths P. and 0. Company to-day, the Chairman (Lord Inchcape) said that the general strike had caused the company serious loss, whilst the coal strike had cost it £200,000. Fortunately, nine of the steamers were oil-burners, and they proposed shortly to convert thq Narkunda and the Naldera into oil burners. Lord Inchcape added: “I do not believe in the prophecy that aeroplanes and airships will shortly hit us badly. Mails and a few passengers may travel to India and Australia by air, but when I think of the comfort of our ships and the thousands of’ tons of mails that are carried; I am convinced that even if the Empire airways prove to be a commercial proposition, the P. and O. Compaify will hold its Own for many a long day. “I notice. that somebody, who, as far as I am aware, has had no experience with shipping, proposes to establish an £11,000,000 company to run a 22-knot service to India and Australia. “Only a sanguine man imagines that seven steamers could maintain a fortnightly service. They could not provide the shareholders with a 5 per cent, dividend. The P. and O. Company would have provided a 22-knot service if it had seen the way to cover expenses and leave a decent margin. “This company last year carried over 2,250,000 passengers 17,000,000 miles and did not lose a life.”