SHIPPING INDUSTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 11

SHIPPING INDUSTRY

NO REAL IMPROVEMENT. a EX CUSS WORLD TONNAGE. . mi 7” S lucre appears to be no real sign of n permanent, improvement in the ship- S( ping industry, nor ran there be until world tonnage bears a closer relation n to the needs of world trade,” said Mr. I. C. Geddes, who presided at the 0 annual meeting in London recently, of the Orient' Steam Navigation Company, Limited. “Rightly or wrongly, many nations 0

lelieve that it is necessary to possess n adequate share of the world’s merantile tonnage, and the sum total of hese ‘adequate shares’ is vastly in ixcess of the tonnage required to carry meh oversea trade as is left in the vorld when the demands for national ielt -sufficiency, have been satisfied,” aid Mr. Geddes. “This excess tonlage can be kept running only at the axpayers’ expense. Perhaps the fear >f war and its consequences direct or ndirect is the roo»t cause, but whatever he reason waste does not enter into he argument when national dignity >r supposed economic and military se

I curity is at stake, if w© agree that a mercantile marine for Britain is a necessity and not a luxury, then the British Governmenit is in process ot making the answer which is necessary until other countries are prepared tc revise the assistance given to thoii national shipping not only by straight out subsidy, but. also by indirect means, which are, perhaps, more rtiffi cult to combat.”