BRITISH SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23083, 8 January 1937, Page 4

BRITISH SHIPPING

SERIOUS POSITION DEMAND FOR SUBSIDIES The serious position of British shipping, the dangers to which the country will be subjected in time of war, and the need for the appointment of a Minister of Marine with Cabinet rank, were stressed in a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts by Mr E. H. Watts, vice-chairman of the Shipping Federation. "As long as some countries have a lower standard of living and lower operating costs, and other nations are prepared to compete with them by granting subsidies, trade reservations, and uneconomic assistance, it is obvious," he said, " that a mercantile marine which enjoys none of these advantages costs more to employ and must ultimately cease to exist." Mr Watts demanded large subsidies in the initial stages of the rehabilitation of the industry, and an insistence on a more equitable share of British purchases being carried in British ships. Should the income from ships dwindle further, and eventually disappear, the country would be faced with the extremely difficult, if not impossible, task of balancing the national trading accounts. On the question of "the supreme importance of the mercantile marine in time of war," Mr Watts declared that the present cargo-carrying section of the service was utterly inadequate for the responsibilities it might be called on to shoulder. He estimated the shortage at approximately 700 iships. This was unquestionably optimistic; some shipowners would put it at 1000 or even 1500 ships. To regain the lost ground he called for extension of the " scrap-and-build " scheme, so that one new ton should be built for every ton, instead of two, scrapped.