Evening star., 1941-10-31
u. 5. Sets Up Office
In Africa 10 Open
Aid BottIenecks
Maritime Commission Acts
To Help Shippers Hit by
Wharfage Obstacles
BY GEORGE WELLER,

ny UEohUE NELLEhy
Foreign Correspondent OF The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
NAIROBI, Kenya Colony, British
Southeast Africa, Oct. 31.-In order
TO remedy bottlenecks in the ship
ment of American war materials for
the defense of the British Near
East, caused by delays in British
East African ports, the United
States Maritime Commission has es-
tablished a new Office at Durham
(Port of NataD.
This is the first such wartime
shipping bureau to be established in
Africa. Its task is to remove the
obstacles in British transport faclll-
ties which, besides rendering the
movement of lease-lend cargoeS less
efficient than desired, have caused
American shippers to assume a
heavy burden of expense through
dislocated schedules and delayed
vessels.
While the German Admiralty has
been claiming to have caused the
British heavy shipping losses, a
study of the ports on the east coast
of Africa through which passes
much material, shows that plenty OF
ships are available. But wharfage,
on the contrary, is greatly overtaXed.
Ports Closing Causes Delay.
Despite the supposedly invincible
submarine warfare, there are actu-
ally always more ships waiting to
unload their cargoes for East and
South African ports than available
wharves, cranes and storage facll-
tiles for their accommodation.
The original cause of the bottle
neck was the closing of the ports of
Beira and Lourenco Marques by the
Portuguese as inlets for war material
to Rhodesia and the Transvaal re-
spectively, and their accepting only
cargoes' destined for civil use.
The situation has never reached a
state like that in the early days OF
the war when scores of American
freighters were tied up for weeks
in Channel ports. But the voyage
of single American freighter this
autumn may serve as an example OF
the difficulties encountered.
The freighter, carrying a lease
lend cargo plus passengers, reached
an important African port after a
28-day voyage from New York over
a direct course in defiance Of sub
marines and surface raiders. In
stead of unloading Immediately, the
captain was ordered to anchor out
side the harbor. In the harbor road
stead there were % freighters with
priority over the American ship
The American freighter remained
anchored outside for IL days. Fol-
lowing the harbor authorities visit
the first day, no communication was
allowed between ship and shore and
none of the passengers was permit
ted to land.
Lost Three Weeks, Four Days.
After unloading a portion of its
cargo intended for this pert, the
freighter proceeded northward. The
service at the next two British East
African ports was better, but a day
was lost in one and day and half
In the next. Reaching the final war
port closest to the zone of hostilities
the freighter was compelled to wait
again for wharfage privileges, the
delay eventually amounting to five
days. When the holds were finally
cleared the freighter had fallen SO
far behind its schedule that it missed
the flood tides necessary for entering
the Portuguese Mozambique port of
Beira on the return voyage. That
caused another six days to be lost.
Necessarily British shipping sched-
ules are more uncertain than Ameri-
can because conveys must skirt the
danger zones while American ships
have so far proceeded straight
through. But in the above case the
American vessel lost three weeks
and four days time at an overhead
Of $4,000 a day. One-third of the
elapsed time of the voyage from the
United States and return was wasted
waiting in African ports.
Following President Roosevelt's
speech, the time is seen to be close
at hand when American freighters
also will be compelled to use cir
cuitous routes and American conveys
may follow soon afterward. II
British harbor facilities are in
creased. it is believed that the Amer
ican Maritime Commissions new
Durham office can cooperate eff
ciently with the African authorities
in charge of transshipments.
tcopyright. 1941. Chicago Daily News, Inc }