Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1901. COMMAND OF THE SEAS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 20 November 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1901. COMMAND OF THE SEAS.

When Britain loses her commercial supremacy on the sea, from that moment her decline is certain. Such is the opinion of the foremost men of the day, who having studied the question in all its phases, who having read deeply of the rise and fall of empires, consider themselves competent to advance an opinion thereon. Britains claims to enjoy a naval supremacy so far as her warships are concerned, and in commerce —ship-carrying capacity —she yet occupies a very strong lead ; so strong as to cause no immediate fear of being displaced. Yet there is no blinking the fact that other nations are creeping up steadily while Britain stands still, or as was the case last year actually falls back. The return of the British Board of Trade for 1900 shows that there was a considerable decrease in the tonnage of British vessels entered and cleared at ports in the United Kingdom. The tonnage of sailing and steam vessels dropped from 65,648,989 to 62,710,836 tons, due principal y to a falling off of 2,817,017 tons in steam tonnage. The tonnage of foreign shipping showed a considerable increase, particularly the German tonnage, which rose from less than 5,250,000 tons to 6,027,028 tons. Our shipping yards built last year 944,267 tons of shipping, of which 207,361 tons were built for foreigners. The Suez Canal traffic still bears witness to the fact that British shipping leads the world. Out of the 13,699,238 tons which passed through the canal last year, the British owned 7,771,346, but these figures were the lowest since 1890, and showed a great decrease on the previous year, when there were oyer ?,OQO,OQQ tons, The Qhief riyal

was Germany, which in 1890 owned only 731,888 tons of vessels using the Suez Canal. Last year this had in- : creased to 2,047,230 tons, against 1,492,657 tons in 1899. Here we ; have much about the same tonnage, but Britain decreased one and a half million tons, while Germany increased by over a million and a half tons. It only requires this ratio of decrease and increase to continue for a few years to find Germany taking first place. Of course with Britain the tonnage is a natural one, unaided by State ; with Germany it is different; the mercantile marine has been State fed and State pampered. But this cannot continue; even now the strain is very severely felt by the German people; commerce is far from prosperous, and there is much depression and lack of employment. A nation like an individual, can only force a trade to a certain point; if it is forced beyond that stage disaster must inevitably ensue. And so with Germany and other powers. They must have the territory and market otherwise, only in a limited way can they compete with those who possess these advantages. Taking this view of the question, Britain possibly has not for years to come much to fear. But there is another, and a personal aspect of the question that is not so assuring. On turning to another part of the report we find that of the 247,448 persons employed on British ships, 36,823 were aliens, a proportion of 21*14 per cent. Last year there were only 5,617 apprentices, as compared with 18,303 in 1870. Here assuredly we have cause for apprehension. We may contiaue to build, own and sail the ships, but if we have not British sailors to man them we largely lose control, and in time of a national crisis place ourselves in a doubtful, if not in a very perilous, position. The return gives evidence of a growing dislike for the sea by British boys, A falling of apprentices from 18,303 in 1870 to 5,617 in 1890 is a decline of a very serious nature indeed. Assuming that it takes 250,000 seamen to work our mercantile marine, and that 20 years is the average duration of life at sea, 6,000 apprentices would in such time only supply us with 120,000 seamen, or less than half the required number. With our merchantmen manned with 120,000 Britishers and 180,000 Foreigners, it could scarcely be termed truly British ; nor could it be relied on in time of war to supply material for defence purposes. It is this feature of the question that requires attention. Evidently the attractions of a sea life require to be improved considerably to induce a sufficient number of young men—at least 15,000 per annum—to take up the avocation. To secure absolute reliability in time of peril, it is'necessary that the apprentices annual roll should not fall under this number.