POST-WAR SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 5

POST-WAR SHIPPING

AMERICAN PROGRAMME

NEW YORK, August 30,

Noting that the United States will have a post-war "preponderance of the world's ocean-going tonnage as well as competent personnel," the American Merchant Marine Institute has proposed a 10-point programme,- the most important of which is the reservation of a defence pool of 5,000,000 tons of shipping held in American inland waters for an emergency, but not used in competition with private shipr ping. Other points are: The eventual transfer of Government-owned ships to private interests; continuance of the Maritime Commission's building programme to help American companies to carry the expected great increase in foreign trade; modernisation and expansion of the domestic fleet and also servicing Axis trade routes; participation of American vessels in the tramp shipping field which "offers many opportunities for trade penetration under friendly or unfriendly auspices." A shipping policy should be formulated with due regard for the legitimate interests of the Allies. However, it must be emphasised that the merchant fleet is a national asset paid by the United States taxpayer.

"I submii to the judgment of the United Nations and history that the British-American strategy, as directed by the combined chiefs of staff and as approved and to some, extent inspired by the President and myself, has been the best open to us in practical circumstances.

"It has been, bold and daring, and has brought into play against the enemy the maximum effective forces that could have been deployed up to the present by Britain and the United States,- having regard for the limitations of ocean transport, the. peculiar conditions of amphibious warfare, and the character and training of the armies we possess. "The terrific aerial attack on Germany would not have been possible without the magnificent stand of the Russians against Hitler's forces. No country has withstood such a devastating attack as that thrown against the Russians." -

Turning to Italy, whose "war impulse" had been destroyed and which had paid a terrible penalty for allowing itself to be misled by false and criminal guides, the Prime Minister declared: "How much easier it is to accept them than to shake them off." A large number of German troops had been drawn away from France to hold down the Italian people in order to make Italy a battleground and keep the war as distant and as long as possible from German soil. By far the greater part of^the German air force had been drawn from the Russian front, and was being worn down with ever-growing intensity night -and day. <, We had established a strategic initiative and potential, both in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, of which the enemy could neither measure the weight nor perceive the hour of its application, said Mr. Churchill. THE WAGES OF SIN. Mr. Churchill said that the fate of King Boris of Bulgaria might serve as a warning to other rulers that "the wages of sin is death." Pointing out that Britain's principal activity against Japan must of necessity be centred in India, he expressed his confidence in Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatteri, the newlyappointed Commander-in-Chief in South-east Asia. ' In conclusion, the Prime Minister \ said: "It is not given to the clearest minded and most calculating mortals to know with certainty what is their interest. Yet it -is given to a lot of simple folks to know what is their duty. That is the path along which the.British Commonwealth and Empire, the great Republic of the United

States, the vast U.S.S.R., the indomiti able and innumerable people of China, and all the United Nationsshall march till our work is done and we may rest from our labours and the whole world may turn with hope, confidence, good sense, and dearly-bought experience from war to lasting peace."—B.O.W.