PACIFIC SHIPPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23201, 27 May 1937, Page 10

PACIFIC SHIPPING

AMERICAN COMPETITION DISCUSSION AT CONFERENCE LONDON, May 25. The Australian Associated Press political editor learns that there is every hope that it will be unnecessary for New Zealand and Australia to proceed with legislation seeking to prohibit the Matson Line carrying passengers between New Zealand and Australia. This emerges from to-day's deliberations of the Imperial Conference Pacific Shipping Committee. It is gathered that a decision so far has not been reached, but the discussions have progressed sufficiently to suggest that New Zealand, Australian and United States viewpoints can be reconciled. It is assumed from this that the United States is willing to compromise regarding prohibiting British ships carrying passengers between American ports and Honolulu. It is understood that the committee also discussed the wider question of Pacific shipping—namely, the abandonment of the Union Company's San Francisco-Sydney service and the Matson Line's subsidised competition with the Canadian-Aus-tralian Line. It dealt with Britain's tentative proposals, which were earlier submitted to the dominions as the outcome of the Imperial Shipping Committee's report, which the dominions considered inadequate to meet the situation. A further study of the proposals suggests that perhaps they are a little better than it seemed, but it is at present impossible to say whether the conference will achieve agreement on a satisfactory scheme to compete with the Matson Line, such as building two new liners.