THE SHIPPING PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 10

THE SHIPPING PROBLEM

AMERICAN TROOPS FIRST

WHY NEW ZEALAND SUFFERED

A statement made.by the Sli/pping Controller (Sir Joseph Maclay) in London a fow weeks ago throws light i poll the shortage of shipping for the carriage "of New Zealand and Australian produce. The Controller explains that overy available ship has been used to move American troops to France, and that in this great effort the United Kingdom has been compelled "to sacrifice to a large extent the communications between the Mother'Coutvtry and the Dominions in the Southern- Seas." "Over 1,000,000 troops have been brought across the Atlantic during the past year or so," taid Sir Joseph, Maclay, "in face of an offensive by sea waged by tho enemy with as great determination as lid has fought on the Western front. To s arrest all our transport movements, and particularly those of the Americans destined for Europe every German submarine has been sent to sea. 'What has happened? The lives of fewer than 300 soldiers have been lost. About threefifths of the Americans have been cai'ried in- British ships, and the propo'rtien is rising. While they have been travelling to Europe the 7,000,000 British, Dominion, and Indian troops engaged in six theatres of war have been supported with reinforcements, munitions, stores, and food, and their sick and wounded carried.

"Owing to tho rapidity with which men are now being carried down to the American coast, we have had to arrange for an even greater contribution of shipping, and it is probable that during the next few weeks nearly two-thirds of tho troops will.be carried in British ships. We are not 'out' to pat <urselves on the back, but I might add that ships trading between the British Isles and the Far East, Australasia, and India _ have had to be withdrawn, from service, and we have been compelled to sacrifice to a large extent the communications between the Mother Country and the Dominions in the Southern Seas. The manner in which the Dominions have bowed to compelling circumstances has been splendi'd. This concentration of shipping has meant the severing of trade associations built up during long periods of years. That statement may suggest the character of the sacrifice which the British people aro making in order to facilitate the transport of American troops. The stream of supplies must, too. be maintained—s tons per year for every American landed."

Sir Joseph, referring to the transport of reserves at the front itself, said that Jio believed the American Army now lias in Franco a railway with more miles of track and- a heavier equipment than the Erie Railway (which has 1987 miles of track). "There is no more remarkable feature of this transport movement that the success with which the Americans have transformed some of the French noris. I may mention the case of the Leviathan, formerly the Hamburg-Amerika liner Vatpvland (the largest In the world). ! This enormous -vessel recently reached a French port with 11,000 men on board, almost equivalent to a whole German division. Thev were disem-' barked, 4000 tons of coal was taken on beard, and in 48 hours the Leviathan was oil her way back to the United States.

"All that we have learned during the war in the matter of transport we have placed at the disposal of the American authorities, and they have proved good learners.

"The output' of American shipyards this year will be entirely absorbed by the demands of the army. The losses of the other Allies are still in excess of building. These are facts which there is a tendency to overlook, at any rate ill this country, and 1 am in entire agreement with 'the First Lord of tho Admiralty when he said that we must look to our own efforts in solving our own. shipping problems. That must be truo for some time ahead, and our shipping problem is still serious, as the reduction of our imports and the scrapping of our foreign trade indicate. The importance of speeding up British construction cannot be exaggerated, for tho tonnage problem is becoming every day increasingly the predominant problem of tho war for the Allies. The war

for the Allies is first and last and all the time a question of ships and yet more ships."'