NEW SHIPS FOR PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 23407, 14 January 1938, Page 6

NEW SHIPS FOR PACIFIC

MR SAVAGE DENIES CAUSING DELAY HIGH COST OF BUILDING j BLAMED i (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 13. “This is all misrepresentation of the position. We have not changed our attitude at all,” declared the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview this evening when his attention was' drawn to an article in the London shipping journal, Syren and Shipping Illustrated, of December 8, alleging that New Zealand was the obstructionist party causing the delay in giving effect to the Imperial Shipping Committee’s recommendations for the trans-Pacific service. The article stated that a stage was being approached at which orders for the two projected liners would have been placed when New Zealand dropped her bombshell. The hitch had occurred because New Zealand had suddenly decided that she wanted one of the two 'vessls to be registered in the Dominion. “We want British shipping lines in the Pacific run under conditions that we can be proud of, that is all,’’ Mr Savage said. “We are not going to accept anything, either for the seamen or the passengers. The people who are responsible for this charge are ready to stick pins into anyone for the sake of getting something done. I do not object to that, but I do object to the blame being placed where it does not belong. I wonder how many people would say that the ships ought to be built, whatever the cost. Ship building is a costly thing today and that is playing a greater part in holding things up than anything else probably. Our discussions on conditions for the seamen were incidental to the whole thing. It was something that might have been expected by any Government. The major thing at the finish was the type of ship we wanted and its cost under present day conditions. I think most governments would admit that the present high prices have increased the difficulties.”