PASSENGERS LINERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20056, 30 September 1939, Page 3

PASSENGERS LINERS

BRITISH SERVICES HIGHER COSTS AND FARES British passenger liner companies, are busily - engaged in converting their “services 'to wartime conditions, wrote the Shipping 'correspondent of The Times on September 1 8. ■ The sailings" were bound" to' be affected, extensively:•" •' A'V. - ' A" Wqrjdpg expenses have risen already and they are like.ly to advance 'Triorc! One” of the. chief of the additional ’costs is the charge for war'TinStirahca," -which will'- vary according to' the values of the diifei':eiit,‘wfes'els,fbut .in' 'any case must be considerable. As an example, on the presefiF'ba'sisThe charge for war insurance alone on a liner valued ai £1,250,000 would be £1:00,000,; for 12; months. " ~ “! In ."the, circumstances of war sub-, sldiifiaT .increases iii passenger rates are regarded as inevitable. Fares which were calculated to' cover working Costs'in normal times and leave something for -interest clearly would beiihacjequdtd to meet a much higher, level, of expenses. ” 1 ■''< In ordinary' times every effort was made to'turn passenger liners round quickly in port,” so that tlfey might, be earning passage money and freight rates for- the maximum period oftheir lives. These carefully prepared programmes cannot be expected to be carried'out. in time of war.. Probably ships' will need to be diverted; with the result that voyages will be prolonged, and Vessels may be detained at particular points. All the ebniequentifinterruptions, of the. smooth ■ wdi'king >of • the liner organ-. isations. must obviously add greatly to'their working costs. [On September 13 thb Suez. Panama and Cape steamship 'lines announced' a Surcharge of, 33 .1-3 per cent to be added'forthwith, to all passage rates. The issue of return tickets was to be discontinued.]