THE MERCANTILE MARINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 7

THE MERCANTILE MARINE.

SIR. L. HALSEY’S TRIBUTE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) . LONDON, December 15. Admiral Sir Lionel Haley was one of the principal guests at the Lyceum Club, 1 iccadilly. on the occasion of a mercantile marine dinner. Miss Agnes Gibbons presided. Proposing “The Merchant Service.” Sir Lionel Halsey said the Prince of Wales recently had referred to the mercantile marine as a great industry. That theme might be enlarged upon. The mercantile marine 1 ad been responsible for the very existence of the country, which had always depended upon it since the earliest' days of our history. The merchant service had had its ups and downs, but it was significant that when it was down the trade of the country had been down too. During the war the merchant service supplied the navy with a great reserve of man power. Those not taken for the navy had simplj- “carried on,”- and brought to us the essential raw materials to be converted into war n unitions. The merchant service world never be forgotten by our late enemies, and would not be ignored by any enemies of the future. Sir Frederick Lewis and Sir Burton Chadwick, M.P. (Deputy-master of the Company of Master Mariners) replied. The latter said that the Lyceum Club was the only body in existence to give a dinner, year after year, in honour of the merchant service. Unlike all the other services, the merchant service, the mother of them all, had had no one to speak for them on a level .with other cervices and other professions. The Company of Master Mariners would endeavour to fill that position for the mercantile marine.