The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-03-12
BRITISH SHIPPING
FEELING NERVOUS
Report of Association Declares All Meas
ures Taken by Government Against
Submarines Are Inefficient.

Liverpool March 1.-THE annual re-
port Of the Liverpool Steamship Owners
association, which includes practically all
the important shipowners in England,
emphasizes the seriousness of the ship
ping situation, and declares sguarely that
all the measures thus far taken by the
government are insufficient. The report
insists that state management of ship
ping has failed and must fail, and ex-
presses the opinion that only the most
radical curtailment of imports and a
similar radical limitation of the amount
of tonnage used for military purposes
can save the nation from the most seri-
] GUS shortages of food and vital raw
materials.
Commenting on the appointment of
shipping minister as a member of the
Lloyd George cabinet, the report says:
"The association welcomes the appoint
ment of minister charged with the duty
of seeing that the mercantile marine is
used to the best advantage of the ma
ton, and it will render every assistance
in its power to that minister But the
problem of providing the nation with its
tSrtntlhi VI lptu anu raw Hidtt-
rial is only a part of the shipping prob
lem. The essential factors, the limita-
ton of imports, the amount of tonnage
to be devoted to purely military pur
poses, and the labor shortage, can be
dealt with by no one department. They
must be faced and dealt with by the
whole war cabinet"
Direct state management of shipping is
impossible, says the report. The state is
so bad a manager that state control of
the nations tonnage would mean quick |
starvation. "The association views with |
grave concern the growing number of
British ships placed under state manage
ment. The experience of two and half |
years of war has shown that under state |
management there is constant and seri |
GUS wastage. The conditions under which
our overseas supplies are obtained, the
voyages made, and cargoes loaded and I
discharged, are so varying that waste in
power can only be checked
through the compelling power of com
mercial Observation-Disclosures profit and
loss acting directly on all those con-
cerned, whether as traders, shipowners
or transport workers.
"The inevitable results of state man
agement have been waste of time. loss of
ocean carrying power, and therefore the
imports. II these be reduced under state
by only 10 per cent.--and
Judging by all past experience it might
we'll be reduced by 25 per cent. and up
wards, the nation would be faced with -,
shortage of essential supplies.
privaton and panic prices. Weighed
against such perils, the saving of freights,
wen if cargoes were carried for nothing, {
S negligible factor. F.;
"To satisfy military demands since the I
of the war, about third of
he British mercantile marine has been ]
devoted to purely war purposes. One I
bird of the British mercantile marine /
las carrying capacity in ocean trade, in ,
he course of year, of upwards of 55
million tons weight of imports and ex- I
,orts. 1t is manifest that If the remain 6
ng two thirds had been utilized only in 7
proportion to the one-third under mill
airy control, the nation must have long v
go starved. J
ut is no reflection on the officials of o
he state that they have been unable to d
uild up an effective organization. Their S
ask has been an impossible one They o
ave obtained and welcomed the advice X
nd assistance of business men, but it is f
die to imagine that departmental man t
cement, either with or without such o
clip, can ever exercise over hundreds of k
hips the kind of control which the ship b
ing companies, with their highly trained p
nd specialized stats, must exercise over
ems of ships if the maximum of carrying
over is to be obtained.
Under average conditions, a ship
Ponds half her time in port loading and d
ischarging, and thus there is on every a
oyage the risk of heavy delay The Il
voidance of undue waste in these opera
ons is at the root of the effective use of s.
Il ship-carrying power. To secure this Il
he energy and enterprise of the ship al
wners and their stats at home and j,