GERMAN SHIPPING AFTER THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 80, 28 December 1917, Page 10

GERMAN SHIPPING AFTER THE WAR

WHAT THE GERMAN PRESS IS SAYING GRAVITY OF POSITION ADMITTED 'L'hero were lew things of which Germans were prouder than their mercantile marine" and nothing which has been worse damaged by the war. A writer in the "Cologne Gazette'" in September, 191G, said that shipping in Germany had suffered more severely through tho war than any other indus-, try, more severely even than the export trade; and that there was serious anxiety in-German shipping circles as to how its "grave wouu3s" could be overcome. The wounds are graver to-day and the anxiety greater. Wo may take the total German mercantile tonnage at the outbreak of tho war as 5,500,000 in' round figures. fly destruction of ships and seizure of ships by the countries now at war with her, Germany has definitely-lost 2,160,000 tons (some Germans say more); and she may yet lose a considerable number of ships laid up in Chile and Argentine. In any case, however, she has lost absolutely; two-fifths of her total tonnage, in spite of the .curious fact that a quite unusual amount of her shipping happened'to, be ii) ,, German harbours when she declared war. But thisMS by no means the measure of the full .extent of her loss. Her -commer-' cial ports are ruined; tho President of the Hamburg House of Burgesses declared in May not only that the trade and shipping of Hamburg had been almost completely destroyed, but that "simple restoration is impossible, because- ' all the threads havo been severed which united Hamburg with the whole world." Again, the great shipping companies have been earning no money, or a mere trifle by voyages in tho Baltic, and their expenses have been tremendous. Interest and amortisation cost tho flambtirg-Amcrilcii Company £250,000 a year; but more serious than this has been the upkeep of the ships in neutriil harbours, and tho wages.and board of the crows. Her rUoetz, of Hamburg, writing in tho "Europaisclie Staats-und Wirtachafts Zeitung" on February 3, • says:—"No one who lias not experienced it can havo any idea of the cost of such board" (wo may add maintenance of; the ships) "at the present Josv rate of German exchange. It is an experience calculated to exhaust the treasury of the richest company." The companies are really beine; kept going by Government loans;.but they have to face yet another blow in the future. A gigantic subsidy was granted by the German Government to the shipping ooinpaaies, the -monopoly of the emigrant iralnofroni Iliiuvorn Europe., to America; to the HamburgAmorika and ]V<ir!Huirt-ii'..i.ir Lioyd it was worth- from- £12.000,1:00 to . £16,000,000 a year,. and it is not expected in Germany .thit this lucrative traffic will •revive after the war. If this ibe so, the enornious emigrant halls and all the ether machinery of emigration, in which these coinfanies havo sunk so much iiionoy will become a "ftead loss. It is obvious, therefore, that after the war, even if the Allies were to take no hand in tho natter, .German shipping will liavo h tremendous amount of leeway to n - .ake up with insufficient capital resources, and the position grows more serious with each month that the war lasts.

Naturally there has- been an outcry in Germany for two things—a great building programme (with prohibition of foreign orders) and State assistance. During 1916 we heard a gieat deal abmft the building programme. German shipyards, we were told, had improved their position during the war; capital had been increased and works extended. Herr Ballin, in August, 1916, isued an imposing list of ships building foi\ his company, and we had statements of the same sort in the Press, of which wo may quote one from "Über Land und Jleer".— "The Hamburg-Ame'rika had building 350,000 tons, and the Norddeutscher 240,000; during the war the German yards had been employed on a mercantile tonnage of 750,000." Thoso who remembered that the total German output for the decade 1902-12 was t1.0,(JOO tons were sceptical. But this talk, coupled with the discussion .of subvention by the Reichstag in May, 1916, had its effect in Germany; there was a boom; the public bought shipping shares, and the holders in Hamburg and Bremen unloaded. Then, October, Ballin came out with a statement that when the war began v.oik was stopped on all the large liners, and soon afterwards on freighters, all that was being done was preparation for building hard when peace came. A great financier, Herr Ballin 1 As a matter of fact, the "Frankfurter Zeitung" has recently referred to "the existing military veto upon new shipbuilding" as a well-known thing. We may assume that Germany will not suddenly produce, a brand new fleet the day peace is signed. There is, however, no question that Germany at the peace will be ready with an enormous building programme, 'i'hs great financial and industrial concerns ,are now taking a direct interest in shipping, in order to secure tonnage space for imports at reasonable rates.One or two companies, as Kiupp's, i already ovmed ships. We heard in I September, 1916, that a director of the Deutsclie Bank and oue of the Dis-conto-Geselischaft had joined the Ham-burg-Amerika board. Herr Stinnes, of Wesphalia, had secured an interest in the Woermann Line, which in turn has become closely allied with the Hanir. burg-Amerika. The Thyssen interests:' have placed large orders with tho Vulcan Company. Stinnes, tho'HamburgAriierika, and tho A.E.G. have combined to found a new yard, the Hamburger Werft. A director of Krupp's has joined the board of Norddeutscher, and Krupp's have bought two shipping yards. The A.E.G. has bought land near Hamburg to make a new yard for itself. This year, 1917, has seen the foundation at Stettin of a ilow shipbuilding company, tho Pommern Werft A.(}.,.with a capital of £500,000, which makes it the fourth largest in Germany; it will build largo standardised freighters, and (it is said) will be ready to bogin work in the spring of 1918. Another company, the E. Bitzlaf. has boen formed at Stettin to build 8000-ton freighters, and the Roiharstieg Company, of Hamburg, has greatly enlarged its yards. The abovo list is probably far from exhaustive, but it indicates tho activity at work, and n]so the way in which a closer combination of shipping with finance and industry is being sought. But there are various difficulties ahead wliich must now be considered.—W. T. Tarn, in the Melbourne "Age."