BRITAINS ONE AND ALL.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13269, 26 August 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRITAINS ONE AND ALL.

PARAMOUNT NECESSITY FOR MAINTAINING OUR SHIPPING.

By C. H. Fefraby. Amid the distractions of the war there is a problem of the future upon which tho authorities will need to keep a clear

eye. We exist by the sea. The sea protects us and the sea feeds us. The ocean pathways are the trunk linos of the world's trade, and hitherto it has been the aim of every British Government to see to it that tlio.se pathways were regularly and plentifully followed by British merchant ships. We have lost ships during the war. We shall lose moro ships. After the war there will be a struggle for

world trade of a ferocity hitherto un-

known in commercial annals. Statistics aro notoriously dangerous weapons and at the present moment we lack any official compilation of the losses

in the last twenty months in our mercantile marine. Lord Beresford, who drew attention to this matter in the Lords with his customary vigor of

purasiag, placed the total of ships lost by .submarines, mines, and in action at 860. Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge has suited as his belief that the tot ll amounts to half Lord Beresford's figure. i have personally kept as careful a record as. possible from published information, and I arrived at a total of 307 ships, of an approximate tonnage of 2,250,000 during the first eighteen months of the war. ] It is manifest that every requirement of the nation at the present time and in the immediate future demands the replacement of those ships. What is being dene? The annual summary of the world's shipbuilding issued by Lloyd's at the end of 1915 showed that during that year there were launched in the United Kingdom 327 vessels of 650,999 tons. That they are so small that our carrying capacity at sea has been reduced nearly 1,600,000 tons. Furthermore, I find from Lloyd's register for the first, quarter of this year.that work was started in the three months ou only tifty-four now steamers of 102,723 tons. IN NAPOLEON'S TIME.

Our building resources during the .Napoleonic wans enabled us actually to increase our merchant shipping from 2,167.863 tons in 1803 to 2,616,965 tona m 1814, and this despite the fact that tlie enemy was capturing from us on an average some 500 shvps a year. Are our shipbuilding resources to-day less than they were 110 years ago? The answer is obvious. It is, however, no use criticising unless one has some reason to believe that things can bo done better. In point ot fact, they can. Shortage of labor there undoubtedly is, but it can be largelv overcome by intelligent distribution of labor. The authorities may be very proud of themselves for combing out of munition works some 300,000 men for military service, but they could do equally good work in the direction ol combing 'men out of military service for shipyard work. There is a wastage of men who are working at less than half pressure in some Government yards, and who are themselves complaining to the munitions tribunals that they are not allowed to do their utmost for the coun-

trv. . The Ministry would' do well to looa very dose!v into tiro assertion of Lord Xunburnholmo that the output of new steamers is delayed because steet for Shipbuilding is not delivered by certain firms at the price fixed by the Minister of Munitions. . , FinalTv, every contract placed with British vards at the present time should tw for "British firms and for Britisn registry. Tt is surely opposed to i-H common sense that wo should allow our potential rivals in the future trade struggle to occupy berths in our shipyards at a time when the needs of our own merchant marine are st> great. RESERVE OF SHIPS.

Wo must not fail either to take into account the. very grave ppsrbihtiM ahead in regard to our fighting flee.. Ncson was preoared to lose halt hJS "fleet if he might but destroy the who o of the fleet of the enemy. The penis of sea fighting were less in his dav than in ours." If wo lose half our Dreadnought squadrons in crushing Germany at sea we shall be for the time ??ew fifteen ships below the two-Power &&* dard No Government could survive which exposed us to that danger. There must be a reserve of new ships benma the fighting squadrons. Students cf naval affairs (and navy, affairs are the prime concern of th.'.s country) are, and have been for a long time, seriouslv perturbed by the lack clear thinking on the part of the authorities. They know perfectly web. that sea ■newer alone can win no war against a" Continental Power, but a maritime nation ■whose control of the sea, both in commerce and war, is crippled, can carry no campaign to a satisfactory conclusion, though she have twenty million soldiers and every one ot them a hero