SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING TONNAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3224, 29 December 1915, Page 19

SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING TONNAGE.

LONDON, December 23. Replying to suggestions in the House of Commons that the Government should control shipping, Mr Balfour said freights had risen simply because the demand had outrun the supply. The limitation of tonnage was the real cause of the difficulty. Criticism had been levelled at the Admiralty because it had commandeered the tonnage and then failed to properly use it. At present there was a transport department comprising shipowners of the highest experience, whose main duty it was to obtain for the army the necessary shipping for the conveyance of troops and supplies with the minimum of inconvenience to the shipping trade. These transports were ordered by the army, and served the purpose of the Allies in the same way as the enormous and intricate system of railways did the Central Powers. The British fleet and mercantile marine had to bear an enormous responsibility. No doubt there had been a wastage of tonnage, but an angel from Heaven could not have eliminated wastage. He did not reject

the proposal that the Government should own the whole of the mercantile marine, but many difficult and complicated questions would arise. On the other hand, it was impossible to leave the whole mercantile fleet quite free. Mr Balfour said he was sorry the Munitions Bill had not passed, as it would have made it possible to make the building of merchant vessels war work. Every delay diminished the amount of tonnage available, and maintained the freights at their present terrible level, with increased cost of innumerable articles essential for the proper carrying on of the war.