The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-03-27
GOVERNMENT FELL
Down IN CONTROL
Britain's Shipping Measures Sc
vereIy Criticized ByLiver-
pool Ship Owners
CBy the Associated Press,

Il
nual report Of the Liverpool Steamship
Owners Association, which includes
practically all the important shipown.
ers in England, emphasizes the serious.
ness of the shipping situation, and de-
clares squarely that all the measures
thus far taken by the government are
insufficient. The report insists that
state management Of shipping has
failed and must fell, and expresses the
opinion that only the most radical cur.
tailment of imports and similar rad
ical limitation of the amount of ton.
mage used for military purposes can
save the nation from the most serious
shortages of food and vital raw ma
terials.
Commenting on the appointment Of
shipping minister as member Of the
Lloyd George cabinet, the report says:
f'The association welcomes the ap,
pointment of minister charged with
the duty of seeing that the mercantile
marine is used TO the best advantage
of the nation, and il will render every
ter. But the problem of providing the
nation with its essential supplies of
food and raw material is only part
of the shipping problem. The essential
factors, the limitation of imports, the
amount of tonnage to be devoted to
purely military purposes, and the labor
shortage, can be dealt with by no one
department. They must be faced and
dealt with by the whole war cabinet. /"
'"The inevitable results Of state
management have been waste Of time,
loss of ocean carrying power, and there
fore the imports. If these be reduced
under state management by only ten
per cent--and judging by all past ex-
perience IL might well be reduced by
twenty-five per cent and upwards, the
nation would be faced with immediate
shortage of essential supplies, priyation
and panic prices. Weighed against
such perils, the saving of freights.
even If cargoes were carried for moth
ing, Is o negligible factor. ~
One Third For War 81. 5ai.5,ca
"To satisfy military demands since
the outbreak of the war, about one.
third of the British mercantile marine
poses. 0ne.third of the British mer-
cnntile marine has n carrying capacity
in ocean trade, in the course Of year,
of upwards of 55,000,0 900 tons weight Of
imports and exports. IL is manifest
that IL the remaining two-thirds has
been utilized only in proportion to the
one-third under military control, the
nation must have starved long ago.
cit is no reflection on the officials Of
the state that they have been unable to
build up an effective organization.
Their task has been an impossible one.
They have obtained and welcomed the
edvice and assistance of business. men,
but 1t is idle to imagine that depart
mental management, either with OF
without such help, can ever exercise
over hundreds of ships the kind of con
trsi which the shipping companies,
with their highly trained and special.
lied STATS, must exercise over tens>o
ships il the maximum Of carrying
power is to be obtained. s;.n '..,l
HUnder average conditions ship
spends half her time in port loading
and discharging, and thus there is on
every voyage the risk of heavy delay.
The avoidance of undue waste in these
operations is at the root of the effect
i've use of all ship-carrying power. To
secure this the energy and enterprise
Of the shipowners and their STATS at
home and abroad are taxed to the ut
most. There is only one British steam
ship company that has under its con-
troll more than 100 vessels, and among
the big British lines the average num-
Der of vessels under a single manage
ment is about twenty. Among the
'tranps' there are few companies or
firms having more than twelve vessels.
/ With this form of management the
shipowner 10 kept in the closest posi-
BILE touch with each vessel on every
voyage, and also with the requirements
of the shippers and receivers of the
cargo" .A.a q '"~ r ..,'.. 49,. H.
Neutral Shipping .--... .-r..s
Touching on the subject Of shipping
under neutral flags, the report says.
"The cardinal fact Of the situation
is that, after satisfying war demands,
the total shipping available in the
world is not sufficient 10 carry the ear
goes demanding to be transported. 1t
must be realized that we are in great
measure dependent on the carrying
power of vessels under foreign flags.
Under peace conditions the employ
ment of foreign vessels was business
convenience, but with the war demands
H. Is now an absolute necessity. Che
following table shows the extent TO
which our imports of food and raw ma
terials have been and are now being
carried In vessels under our own and
other flags: &c.. --' ...... .,. g..
49,. .... gp g9 !