EMPTY SHIPS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160795, 1 November 1920, Page 5

EMPTY SHIPS

TRAGEDY OF VANISHED CARGOES. In the month of July 103 empty ships arrived in New York out of a total of 462 from foreign shores, according to Daily Financial America, which comfents on the enormous decrease in uropean cargoes sent to America.. News .from South American ports in recent months reports the arrival of ships wholly or partly in ballast, in spite of urgent need of coal, machinery and manufactured articles. Other parts of the world record arrivals of empty vessels in order to bring food supplies to Europe. Shorter hours, waning production, higher wages and manufacturing expenses are checking Europe’s exports m many directions, Britain being included in the list of nations sending empty ships abroad. Surely it is possible to rouse the workers from their short-sighted lethargy and convince them by simple logic that there can be no recovery and progress without production and thrift, that no reduction in the cost of living is possible without foreign trade buoyancy, and that the toll of empty Ships, which ought to carry British coal and merchandise overseas to reap the benefits of present rates of exchange, is a national tragedy. *