BRITAIN’S HERITAGE OF THE SEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 7

BRITAIN’S HERITAGE OF THE SEA

MR A. SHAW ON FOREIGN SUBSIDIES A STRONG PROTEST. (From Otm Own Correspondent.! LONDON, May 12. Presiding at the annual meeting of the Missions to Seamen, Mr Alexander Shaw, chairman of the P. and 0. Steam Navigation Company, dwelt upon the menace to British shipping of ships subsidised by foreign Governments. “ While the number of British ships remains as it was in 1913,” he said, "other countries have forged ahead. The United States, France, Japan, and Italy possess three times as many effective vessels as before the war. The policy deliberately pursued by these and other foreign lands is one of high State subsidies. Their ships are thus enabled to run upon an uneconomic basis, while the vessels of Britain have to make ends meet without Government assistance. “So far as I can gather, the policy of some of these countries is one of active economic warfare against the mercantile marine of Britain. It ought to be known to the public that this policy is now going the length of subsidised attack upon our sea-carrying trade between one British Dominion and another; and that the very country which is foremost m attacking our interdominion trade will not allow a single passenger or one ounce of cargo to be carried in trade by our vessels between its own ports. “PASSIVE SUBMISSION.”

“Their policy is clear. It is a policy of active attack. What is the policy of the British Empire? So far, it can hardly be characterised as anything but a policy of passive submission. ■ “ No wonder that, in the words of your report. ‘ Unemployment hangs like a black cloud above our seaports.’ “ The finest sailors in the world are the subjects of the King, himself a sailor. They have the traditions and the genius of the sea. But their numbers will dwindle and their genius rust for lack of use until the statesmanship of the Empire proves equal to its task. “ Meantime, our heritage of the sea is more and more passing into alien hands. Our ships are still the best manned and the most efficiently run. But of what avail is that when we are faced by competitors to whom a 'loss on a voyage is almost irrelevant? It is an unequal contest because it is a battle, in many trades, between the limited resources of British shipping concerns and the massed wealth of foreign taxpayers.”