A FORTUNE EVERY VOYAGE.

Western Star, 26 March 1920, Page 4

A FORTUNE EVERY VOYAGE.

PROFITS OF THE SHIPPING TRUSTS. Think of ships which cost £(300,000 earning £1,400,000 per annum! What ought: to bo done now is again to requisition the whole of the British mercantile marine at Blue-book rates and to devote the great consequent profit to the substantial reduction of the Cost of Living. Every mmi, and woman with a vote should tackle members of Parliament on the subject. —Leo Chibzza Money. Sir Leo Chjpzza Money makes those .statements in a notable article in the ‘Daily News,’ in which he points out Miow the shipowners with high freights are keeping up the Cost of Living throughout the Empire. “ When I left the Government in November, 1918, as a protest against the decision to resign the economic Erection of the nation to the profiteers, and to sell out the national ships' and factories to private capitalists, I pointed out, inter alia, that the nation would have to pay heavily for being, handed over to the vested interests, ’ ho writes. • —Wo Ray Heavily.—• “The price ha- since been paid in much nacre .money. We have not had the imports that wo might have had if the direction da ships sinde imports had remained in public hands. It we consider the monetary loss alone, however, the results ,are sufficiently startling. Indeed, the case is so extraordinary that it is difficult to tell the plain truth about it without being suspected of exaggeration. ■ In November, 1 HIS, the whole- of. (he British mercantile marine was under requisition, and earning its: owners the Blue-book, or arbitration, rates of hire, as raked in 11.118 to a level which "‘arc a very Trie margin of

profit. Now, only one-sixth to oneseventh of the ships are under requisition. It follows that the greater part of the British mercantile marine is earning for its owners the exorbitant rates of freight which it is pos- j siblo to demand in a short market, j —How Values Have Grown.— ' “ Tho following statement will show 1 how the value has grown of aoi ordin- ! aiy cargo steamer built in 1914;- , i —Value of Tramp Steamer Built ' ' 1 1914. ! ■ (Per ton deadweight.) ' 1 •July, 1914 £6 I July, 1915 12 ! September, 1916 24 May, 1918 25 30 “Let us see what this means in the case of a ship of 7,000 tong deadweight. —How a Tramp Steamer of 7,000 Ton Deadweight has Grown in Value.— July, 1914 £42,000 December, 1919 210,000 Increase in value £IOB,OOO Increase per cent. 400 “Lest it bo thought by the uninitiated that I am giving a fanciful case, let me give the accountants’ valuation of ships taken over by the Western Counties’ Shipping Company, Ltd., a company just offered for public subscription. Hero is fleet of cargo steamers, the total valuation of which is now given at £2,400,000. The total number of tons (deadweight) is only 105,600. If all these ships had been built in 1914 they would have cost, as nearly as possible, £600,000. But, it will bo seen, many of thenr date long before 1914. For example, the luchmoor was built in 1900, so that if the wair had not occurred she would have suffered heavy depreciation. Tho present inflated valuation, it will be seen, is £115,000 for a ship of only 5,800 tons, built 19 years ago! —How Freights Have Risen.— “ A tramp steamer in 1914, before the war began, could earn-about 4s per ton per month on time charter. This company states that the ships are earning front . 20s to 27s 6d per ton per month, or from five to seven times Hie earnings of 1914. Consider the earnings of a single ship. The old Inchmoor, a. ship of under 0,000 tons, which cost about £36.000 19 years ago, and which now ,through age, is worth intrinsically much less than when it was built, can earn about £90,000 in a single year, reckoning the hire at 25s per ton per month. Or, if we take the above list of 17 ships, the actual gross revenue they earn, we are told, is now at the rate of £1,439,560 per annum. Think of the ships which cost £600,000 earning £1,4000,000 per annum! Thus tho British people, who paid to the shipowners during the war their capital over and over again, are continuing the process in peace, and appear to be quite content to go on doing it even while we are assured that wo have not the money ay a nation to build electrical power stations or houses for the people. The. madness of it all is beyond expression. The gross earnings of the British mercantile marine this year will approach £400,000,000! ”