NATIONALISATION OF SHIPPING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 19

NATIONALISATION OF SHIPPING.

(By Cable.) LONDON, February 25. At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Shipping the newly-elected president (Mr W. Noble) scathingly criticised State control as extravagant and -wasteful.'--It destroyed initiative, and had been a huge failure. Nationalisation of shipping was a sure road to bankruptcy. Owing to the congestion at the ports and the breakdown of land transport many steamers were doing only half their prewar work. It was a fact that trades and industries which had been decontrolled were already recovering, whereas those still in the. grip of the State were going from bad to worse. With more shipping now than we possessed in August, 1914 We were carrying only half the volume of goods carried in 1913. Mr Noble said he had full faith in the Britisher as a shipbuilder and shipowner, but the present policy of the United States Shipping Board, also of our own dominions, especially Australia, and Canada, was unfair competition. Their policy appeared to be to build up a mercantile marine at any cost, relying on the national purse to make good any deficiency.