A FORTUNE PER VOYAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 59

A FORTUNE PER VOYAGE.

Sir Ghiozza Money Shows How Ships which Cost £600,000 to Build Earn £1,400,000 a Year and Help to Keep Up the Cost of Living. "Think of ehips which cost £600,000 earning £1,400,000 per annum!" "What ought to be done now is ag>a-in to requisition the- whole of the British mercantile marine at Blue-book rates and. to devote the great consequent profit to the substantial reduction of the cost of living. Every man and woman with a vote should tackle members of Parliament on the sub-ject."—-Leo Chiozzo, Money. Sir Leo Chiozza Money makes these statements in a notable article in the Daily News, in which he points out how the ship-owners with high freights are keeping up the cost of living. "When I left the Government in November, 1918, as a protest against the decision to resign the economic direction of the nation to the profiteers, and to sell out the national ships and factories to private capitalists, I pointed out, inter al\a, that the nation would have to pav heavily for being handed over to the vested interests," he writes. —We Pay Heavily.— "The price has since been paid in much more than money. We have not had the imports that we might have had if the direction of ships and imports had remained in public hands. If we consider the monetary loss alone, however, the results are sufficiently startling. Indeed, the case is so extraordinary that it is difficult to tell the plain truth about it without being suspected of exaggeration. "In November, 1918, the whole of the British mercantile marine was under requisition, and earning its owners the Blue-book, or arbitration, rates of hire, as raised in 1918 to a level which gave a very fair margin of profit. Now only one-sixth to one-seventh of the ships are under requisition. It follows that the greater part of the British mercantile marine is earning for its owners the exorbitant rates of freight which'it is possible to demand in a short market. —How Values have Grown.— "The following statement will show how the value has grown of an ordinary cargo steamer built in. 1914 : VALUE OP A TRAMP STEAMER BUILT IN 1914. . (Per ton deadweight.) July, 1914 .. .: £6 July, 1915 .. .. 12 September, 1916 .. .... 24 May, 1918 25 Now 30 "Let us see Avhat this means in the case of a ship of 7000 tons deadweight. HOW A TRAMP STEAMER OP 7000 TONS DEADWEIGHT HAS GROWN IN VALUE. July, 1914 .. .. .. .. .. £42,000 December, 1919 210,000 Increase in value £168,000 Increase per cent 400 "Lest it be thought by the uninitiated that I am giving a fanciful case, let me give the accountant's valuation of ships taken over by the Western Counties' Shipping Company, Ltd., a compaify just offered for public subscription. "Here is a fleet of cargo steamers, the total valuation of which is now given as £2,400,000. . The total number of tons (deadweight) is only 105,600. If all these ships had been built in 1914 they would have cost, as nearly as possible, £600,000.

But, it will be seen, many of tnem date long before 1914. For example, the Inchmoor was built in 1900, so that if the war had not occurred she would have suffered heavy depreciation. The present inflated valuation, it will be seen, is £115,000 for a ship of only 5800 tons, built 19 years agol —How; Freights Have Risen.—

"A tramp steamer in 1914, before the war began, could earn about 4s per ton per month on time charter. This company states that the ships are earning from 20s to 2.7 s 6d per ton per month, or from five times' to seven times the earnings of 1914.

"Consider the earnings \of a single ship. The old Inchmoor, a ship of under 6000 tons, which cost about £36,000 19 years ago, and which now, through age," is worth intrinsically much less than when it was built, can earn about £90,000 in a single year, reckoning the hire at 25s per ton per month. Or, if we take the above list of 17 ships, the actual gross revenue they earn, we are told, is now at the rate of £1,439,560 per annum. Think of ships which cost £600,000 earnir/g £1,400,000 per annum! "Thus the British people, who paid to the shipowners during the Avar their capital over and over again, are continuing the process in peace, and appear to be quite content to go on doing it even while we are assured that we have not the money as a nation" to build electrical power stations or houses for the people. The madness of it all is beyond expression. The gross earnings of the British mercantile marine this year will approach £400,000,000. —Australia's National Ships.—

"Mr Hughes had the happy thought to buy for Australia a few old ships. He made so much profit out of them during the war that the Australian Government got its ships for nothing and a big profit Resides. Mr Hughes is now building more ships to, run on Australian national account, and this naturally gives great umbrage to those who think that the first purpose of ships is to make profits for private individuals. Lord Inchcape publicly scolds the Australian Government for its impudence in nationalising its shipping.

"While turning down the nationalisation proposal, the War Cabinet did, however, order the complete requisitioning of shipping, and that saved the country an enormous sum of money, as Mr Lloyd George has confessed. The reversal of the policy of requisitioning at the end of last year has cost the country an enormous, sum, as the Prime Minister has not confessed.

"Lord Inchcape, at the recent meeting of his P. and O. shareholders, did not conceal his delight at the success with which he had killed shipping nationalisation by buying out the nation's ships. T grant Lord Inchcape that he had a great triumph."