COMPENSATION FOR SHIPS SUNK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 170, 12 April 1919, Page 10

COMPENSATION FOR SHIPS SUNK

$*— i 104 MILLIONS SINCE 1914. Mr. Will Thome recently asked the : Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ' House of Commons how much had been i paid by the Government out of public • funds to shipowners in compensation for : ships sunk by the "lieruy between August • 4, 1914, and.the date of the armistice; : what was estimated to have been the orl iginal cost to the shipowners qf these ; ships; and whether any taxation had 5 been levied on. the sums paid to ship- • owners in this way in excess of tho ori iginal cost. j Colonel Leslie Wilson (Parliamentary : Secretary to the Minister of Shipping), : in a written answer, states:—l assume 1 that the lion, member refers to British • ships lost while under Government requisition, and at direct Government risk, 6 and does riot include vessels insured in !- the Government War Bisk Associations. The amount paid Was J. 104,031,271, and 0 the first cost to owners was ,£61,116,806. . In addition, i 1,358,825 was paid in respoct of 25 ships whoso first cost is not '. known. There are also a few cases not d yet 'settled. So far as 1 ain no " taxation is levied on these sums, which '! represent capital not income, and aro re- " quired to replace the vessels. Building costs aro now from two to three times .: what they were before the war. d