The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-08-01
Cur Ships Vex Britain
By S. BURTON HEATH


interests would be driven to dipsomania b,
nightmares Of what the American Merchant
Marine can do to the British carrying trade
after the war if the islands hadn't already
been denuded of Scotch for the benefit OF
American drinkers
There is no mirage about what the Britons
see in their restless sleep. The United States
is coming out of the war with some $500 sleek,
fast, economical, efficient cargo ships-the last
word in ocean freight-carriers Great Britain
is coming out with maybe 1900 vessels, most
of which will be relatively old, slow and in
efficient.
The small, densely-populated British isles
cannot survive without thriving world trade
Britain made herself Queen OF the Seas be-
cause otherwise she would have been second
or third-rate power. She has to regain at
least considerable part OF her maritime posi-
ton. But how can she, competing with 1900 in
ferior ships against the United States $500
ultra-fine craft?
When peacetime readjustments are made, it
is thousand to one bet that the British are
going to demand some arrangement to COM
pensate for the fact-and it is fact-that Bri-
tain's weak maritime position is due to her all
out defense Of the world against Nazism.
To begin with, she was losing shipping
from 1889 to 1941 while she alone of the great
sea powers was fighting Germany. On top of
that, she made grand-and potentially suici-
dal-gesture when she agreed to concentrate
fighting craft while the United States built
merchantmen that can be used after the war.
British Get The Liberty Ships
We are launching the C-types, Victory ships
md fine forly for
are turning few of them over to the Dutch
and Norwegians. who have large pools of skill
ed seamen but no ships for them. To the
British giving the anachronistlc Liberty
Ships, which are mighty useful in winning the
war but won't be worth wharfage space in
postwar cargo competition.
1t is no wonder, then, that the British are
pessimistic about what may happen to them
if we use our enormous fleet OF efficient ship
ping ruthlessly after the war to take and hold
all the ocean cargo business we can get
Before Britain can replace much of her OBJ
soete shipping with comparatively capable new
craft we could quite possibly sew up much OF
the worlds carrying business. That problem
was posed recently to a representative OF
American ship operators.
Want Business Verboten To Axis
Not at ALL said this expert. Let our
Allies have back their trade. All we ask is
to take over the business that the Alhes can
possibly permit the Axis nations to rega n,
In 1888, according to President Frank j.
Taylor Of the American Merchant Marine In
stitute Axis ships carried Il per cent OF all
U. S. foreign bound shipping, while our own
craft handled only Is per cent.
Deliberately, on the other hand, each AXIS
nation made it very difficult for us to handle
any of their foreign trade. japanese SHIPS car
ried almost 70 per cent of Nippons cargo,
Nazi ships SO per cent of Germany's and
Italian ships 46 per cent of their nation s.
This enabled them to build up the merchant
fleets thew have turned against the peace
of the world American shipping interests de-
mand that Axis merchant fleets shall be de-
modified along with their armies ana naVles.
shall he .h1e tn utilize our huge postwar fleet
without interfering with Great Britains mari i,
time lifeline. And the peace OF the world Will
be promoted by holding down the AXIS powers.