The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1934. MERCHANT SHIPPING.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1934, Page 4

The Daily News

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1934. MERCHANT SHIPPING.

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In no part of the Empire is the question of an adequate and prosperous mercantile marine more important than in New Zealand. The remarks made by the chairman of the P • & 0. Line, the Hon. Alexander Shaw, at Wellington, on Tuesday, are worthy therefore of full consideration by the Dominion. Since the war, Mr. Shaw said, there has been a steady and continuous decline in British mercantile shipping, and to-day 29 per cent, of the world’s tonnage is British, as compared with 34 per cent, in pre-war days. That statement was disturbing enough, but the menace of foreign competition was still more tragically displayed in a cable received on the same day as Mr. Shaw’s statement was made. The cable stated that so severe is the plight of British merchant navy officers as a result of the shipping depression that a vessel had left London with a crew all master mariners. That is to say years of training in the science of navigation and the technique of a ship’s master has gone for nothing in the fight for a bare living. One of the difficulties of those endeavouring to relieve the unemployed is to avoid deterioration or loss of self-respect among skilled workers who are forced to accept unskilled employment on relief works, and for mercantile marine officers to have no security of employment or the possibility of a return to the status of a deck-hand is sure to have a serious effect upon one of the public services that is vital to the Empire’s existence. Little emphasis upon the importance of the mercantile marine is necessary. Upon its adequacy and efficiency New Zealand’s solvency to a large extent depends. A curious side issue of this factor in the Dominion’s economic life is that the sea as a calling is very difficult for New Zealanders to adopt. The Auckland Boys’ Employment Committee complained recently that there were few official aids to any boys seeking to enter the merchant navy, while the New Zealand Company of Master Mariners made a similar complaint. Apart from this local question the general one of the future of the Empire’s mercantile marine is one that is of grave importance. The decline in British shipping is a fact that cannot be ignored. How to arrest that decline and bring about a return of prosperity is the problem, and there are few authorities who see alike in regard to One of the post-war forms of competition is the subsidising of their merchant navies by foreign Powers. For Britain to attempt to outbid her competitors in subsidising her own mercantile marine might land the Empire in larger commitments than the increased trade would justify. Moreover, it is fairly certain retaliation will never bring about a cessation in the growth of the intense nationalism of which navy sugsidies are but one example. They are a demonstration of the determination of each nation to be, as far as possible, self-contained, and self-sufficient for its home markets, and an active competitor for any others in which exports can be sold. There is, of course, the second important consideration of the mercantile marine as a buttress to the navy and a source of supply of trained men for the first line of defence. The value of the British service in that respect was never more emphasised than during the Great War, and it is obvious that the example has not been lost sight of by other nations. Mr. Shaw suggests that shipping is above all matters one that should be guided by an imperial policy. It is vital to every portion of the JSmpire, and the usefulness of the mercantile marine may, he suggests, be considerably enhanced if its maintenance be regarded not as a separate service but as one that is complementary to the intra-Empire trading it is hoped to foster. British goods should be carried in British vessels almost as a matter of course. At present there is no such view taken, and the likelihood is often in the other direction. Obviously shipping is not a question any one portion of the Empire can handle alone. There is much to be said in favour of an imperial inquiry and discussion. The inquiry must be kept free from politics, must be conducted by experts, and should then lead to recommendations that would have an Empire appeal.