MORE TONNAGE NEEDED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19678, 9 July 1938, Page 8

MORE TONNAGE NEEDED

THE MERCANTILE MARINE POSITION |\ 15 RITA IN IMPROVED CONDITIONS (British Official "Wireless.) Rccd. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, July 8. In the House of Commons debate on merchant shipping, it was pointed out that the British mercantile marine, considered from a defence aspect, is not unsatisfactory, but Britain would like to have rather more tonnage. The total British tonnage now is about tlie same as in 1914. In 1913 there were 20,324,000 tons, and to-day 20,719,000. Account should be taken of the greatly improved loading and unloading facilities at ports and the greater carrying capacity of ships compared with 1914. All ships built under the scrap-and-build scheme were compelled to provide the best accommodation, and since then the board has issued fresh instructions about the building of new ships. In these new ships there must be proper sleeping accommodation, mess rooms must be adequate and have proper food lockers, there must be baths and showers with hot and cold water, and * places for drying clothes. These conditions challenge those of any country in the world and probably are the best in the world. Replying to the debate, Mr. Oliver Stanley said: “I have taken the opportunity of getting the latest information in regard to the standard laid down by those countries to which a reference has been made, and I (ind that our standard is equal, and in many cases superior. I deny most emphatically that the new standard, which was laid down as a result of co-operation between all sections of the shipping industry, is inferior to that laid down by any other nation of the world. “As a result of a recommendation made in the last 12 months, a large number of very substantial improvements have already been made in a number of ships, and that, to a large extent, through the willing co-opera-tion of shipowners. I would emphasise that we have done in these two years probably more to improve these conditions than has been done in a generation, that the attempt to improve old existing ships is being pressed with all the emphasis and energy 1 we can, and that it already is meeting with a large measure of success.”