GERMAN LINERS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2210, 24 July 1914, Page 8

GERMAN LINERS

IN NEW ZEALAND TRADE

SHIPOWNERS' FEARS

Delicate negotiations, with a view to a conference in London, were proceeding when the mail left between British steamship lines and the recent combination of the North-German Lloyd and the German Australian Company, which is about to establish a direct servico to Mew Zealand from Germany. The German service would divert about 100,000 tons of trade a year from the Port of .London. -

Sir Owen Philipps, olio of the powers of British shipping, points out in a significant interview published ill the "Daily Mail," that this is only the latest development in, an acute worldwide rivalry. Mr. Potter,, manager, of the 1 Shaw, Savill, and Albion Line, stated recently that all the British steamship lines concerned in New Zealand traffic are acting in complete concert, and that delicate negotiations are being earned on with the German combination, which it is hoped will soon reach a stage'making a conference possible. He has rear son to believe that a-satisfactory compromise,. will be effected, and that 1 the possibility of a rate war is 1 remote.

Sir 0. Philipps's Views. Sir Owen Phillips stated only just, recently: "The New Zealand development is only an incident in a .world-wide state of affairs. It will be well if the interest it has aroUsed serves to draw attention to'. the world situation, to which the British nation as a whole sadly needs awakening. • "On every great trade route in the world, iii every great commercial port, you will find German; ships. _ They are the only formidable rivals British shipping has to face. They have practically captured the trade on the west coast; of America and Brazil and the Argentine. In. the last case, they hit the French so severely as to necessitate, a subsidy from the French Government. _. "What I wish to emphasise is this; The i British public's attention has too long been hypnotised by the German Navy. There is an obsesiion that this commercial aggressiveness is due to the growth of the German Navy._ The bpot is on the other foot. It is German commercial voracity that has created her Navy, and that 16. swelling it to giant proportions. \Our national defence has been directed to the wrong quarter. If the nation had backed up our commercial shipping ae it has the Navy our country would be more powerful to-day.

• Trade Precedes the Flag. "The German naval ensign accompanies her trade: Our flag follows ours. The old saw that our trade follows our flag is not true. It precedes it. Again, lack of combination and unity of purpose have naturally handicapped our' snipping of late -years. The fight for world-supremacy in trade is being waged by German ships and British ships in every ocean. -• "With this to face, inter-rivalry of British lines should he relegated to the background. Speaking' personally, I nave never since I'first took the chair of the.Royal Mail Steam Packet Company .concerned myself with rivalry with other British lines. No inter-British rivalry is necessary. "German'inationar policy can be summed up in one word—trade. She is driven to seek it (and her navy is but an instrument to strengthen and force it) ''by-' the'growth' of' -her-: industrial population','and since*'she "dhanged'from .an agricultural to an industrial nation the acute need of finding arid keeping outside'markets for the products'jof -hers workers has urged her to aggression - "British trade is represented by some three hundred individual-and separate lines', with'no unity of action or purpose.', ' ' ' ■ ■ , 1 ' 'German trade is centred; in seven big lines. Behind 'them,; using'every power of persuasion' and influence to secure their harmonious working _ and co-action, is the greatest commercial director in tho world—the Kaiser. His Majesty lias for many years used 'lm influence to the utmost to secure and maintain consolidation of German lines, and to prevent internal'competition by ■the, multiplication of small interests. How to Hit Back. "Let me" impress that I am speaking from the point of view of national'interest. But as an illustration I may mention that when I took the chair ;of the Royal Mail Company I'realised that in i its isolation its vessels could be squeezed out of any one quarter . by coacting commercial shipping. Now the company is associated ,with a fleet of nearly 200,000 tons, 300'.steamships plying in all parts, and if any one line is hit in any one part it is now possible ,to choose where to hit back, to retaliate in another quarter where the aggressor is more vulnerable. "Before this association was effected tho Hamburg-Americau Line controlled the largest number of'steamers in the world. But, as an illustration of German expansion on the lines I have referred to, it may be noted that -when tho Hamburg-American was founded, with three vessels, the Royal Mail was a big company (for its time) of from thirty to forty vessels. "To sum up, the German nation is behind its'commercial sliippipg.—Government, officials, and .people. Have you ever heard of a German official travelling by/any other,tlian a German boat? It would ho hard to find one-instance. "Germany's international policy has always been influenced hy. commercial considerations. Where she \ "quarrels trade is at stake. When German shipping or trade is molested, where official aid can be given or pressure of the iron hand can be felt,' that aid is given. British commerce and shipping—upon whose prosperity the power of our Navy and nation ultimately depends—have not that backing, British trade is left to forge its-own way and to hold its place by individual enterprise, whioh by its subdivision, is as much competitively directed, against itself as against other -countries.