New-York tribune., 1920-10-20
Teutons Assail
Shipping Plans
OF Government
Indemnity Scheme Proposed
ON Surrendered Vessels
Declared To Be IA Paltry
Method of Remuneration
"17O p. C. Inadequate''
Cannot Replace Tonnage on
This Advance ON Pre-War
Values, Shipowners Say

German ship owners are objecting
strenuously to the plan of their gov
ernment for reimbursing them for ves-
sells surrendered to the Allies under
The peace treaty at the rate of ITO per
cent of the pre-war value of the ships.
To secure the extra 70 per cent, how
ever, the ship owner must replace the
surrendered vessel within six years.
after which time sliding scale of re-
duced percentages goes into effect.
Marked dissatisfaction over the plan
is expressed in a recent issue of the
Hamburger NachrIchten.
"The paltry scale on which the gov
ernment thinks where shipping inter-
ests are concerned is shown by the pro-
posals for indemnity in respect of eX-
nropriated German merchant vessels,'
ehis paper says. THE draft Of the pro-
posed law on the subject states that
.he owner shall receive only the value
OF the ship and its inventory on July
95, 19l4-that is, its last peace value.
Award for Replacing Ships
TO this sum there may he added.
with the consent of the Minister of
Finance d supplementary sum. pro
vided that the claimant replaces the ex-
nroprated vessel with a new one or by
purchasing a vessel not already be
longing to the German merchant ma
rine."
The supplementary sum referred to
would be, within the first six years
from the date of the peace treaty, 70
per cent OF the amount by which the
replacement cost exceeds the peace
uricer of building the substituted yes
sci. During the seventh to ninth years
after the peace treaty the supple
mental grant is reduced to 60 per cent,
and during the tenth to twelfth years
it is cut to 40 per cent of the excess
cost of the substituted vessel.
at is difficult to understand how the
government can bring forward such an
Inadequate MEASURE says the Ham
burgerNachrlchten. Those who framed
the proposals must all be other than
exrerts, because they have certainly
not considered what it costs a Ger
mar owner TO acquire vessel abroad
to-day
apart from the fact that the cost
Of vessels multiplied in every country
during the war, the depreciation of the
German exchange makes the cost to q
German purchaser so eXorbitant that
indemnity on the basis of peace value
plus 10 per cent of the excess cost is
ridiculously small
Germans Getting New Vessels
Although the terms of the peace
treaty. provide for the construction by
German shipyards of 100000 gross
tons annually for period of five years,
number of ships recently completed
in German yards have been turned
over to German shipping firms for
operation and some are reported to
have already been placed in service.
The North German Lloyd Line, for
instance, has been reported as having
resumed its regular service to Brazil
with the newly completed steamer
Vegesach and to have a second vessel,
the Bremerhaven, nearly ready for de-
livery and induction into service from
Bremen to Rio de Janeiro and Santos.
In the mean time, notification has
been given by the German government
that the product OF certain yards has
teen set aside for delivery to the AL
lies. Estimates OF the total possible
production of German shipbuilding
plants has ranged from 100000 to
100000 gross tons a year. On the
basis of the latter figure it would be
quite possible for Germany to restore
nor merchant marine tc its pre-war
size in about seven or eight years.
German shipbuilding concern at
Emden has notified the government Of
Argentina that a 40,000-ton drydock
contracted for before the war has been
completed, but that it VIII not be pos
slble to fulfill the contract by towing
the dock to Buenos Ayres, because Of
Lack OF shipping facilities.