Evening star., 1943-01-05
Land
Continued From First Page.

a record month in December when
12l ships of l,199,300 tons were
placed in service. The extent of
this achievement is revealed by COM
parison with figures of all of 1941,
when only 95 ships of 1,088O00 tons
were completed, less than the figures
for December. In the space of a
year merchant ship construction has
increased more than TOO per cent.
Admiral Land was questioned at a
press conference about the possibili-
ties of transporting war cargoes by
air. He said air transport 'is the
coming thing. and we are enthusi-
astic about it, but we don't think
that it will walk away with every
thing now. 1t is little bit of Jules
Verne to think of air transport
running away with the whole ball"
Some description of a new version
Of the Liberty ship which will be
placed in production in about a year
was given by the commission chair
man. Admiral Land said the new
ship would be larger, faster and have
considerably wide range than the
current Liberty. He added 1t would
be powered by new engine de-
veloped from a German patent seized
since our entry in the war.
This engine, known as the Lentz,
will give the vessel a speed of ap-
proXimately Is knots, as compared
with the IL knots now averaged by
Liberty ships on long trips. This
will enable the vessel not only to
deliver war materials in less time,
the admiral pointed out, but will
minimize considerably the menace
Of submarine attack.
Admiral Land declared he could
not praise too highly the achieve
ment of shipbuilders in SURPRISING
the high construction goal last year.
There are still some sore spots in
merchant ship construction, he said.
The output of some of the yards is
very good, OF others not so good,
while few are sour"
One Flv In Ointment.
The labor situation in the ship
yards now was described by the
chairman AS very much on the up
and up" He said the no-strike, no.
lockout agreement was working we'll
and that labor was really going to
town"
There is only one fly in the oint-
ment. so far as shipbuilding labor
is concerned Admiral Land con-
inued, "and that is absenteeism. 1t
is definitely affecting shipbuilding
and there is only one cure for it,
and that is morale"
Admiral Land said that despite
the 1912 shipbuilding record and the
bright prospects for l943, there will
never be enough merchant ships as
long as this war lasts" He added
that even when we reach five ships
a day, it will not be enough, de-
claring that the submarine menace
was much more difficult problem
in this war than in the last.
He cautioned the public about
being too optimistic concerning the
sinking by our Navy and Army of a
large number of japanese merchant
GilItJS. llC q dlloDlC llS ulCS Oil
the Jap merchant marine indicated
a large percentage of their vessels
were small. He said that out of ap-
proXimately 925 ships the Japs pos
sessed then, more than 70 per cent
were under 5000 tons. The ships OF
the United States and of Great
Britain are much larger, on the aver
age.
The amount of shipping placed in
service this year, Admiral Land said,
will be determined largely by the
quantity of steel made available to
the commission by the War Produc-
ton Board.
WPB Plan Praised.
He said Shipyards were short
about 10000 tons in the period from
July to the end of last year. In
January WPB is making available
more steel for merchant ships than
ever before, sufficient to produce
$4,000, 900 tons year. This amount
will be increased later. Admiral
Land praised the new controlled
materials plan Of WPB as "the best
thing that has been introduced over
there"
Admiral Land was asked why
merchant ships were not converted
to coal from oil as move to relieve
the Easts critical petroleum supply
situation. He said such action would
reduce the radius Of movement Of
merchant ships by 20 to so per cent.