BRITISH SHIPPING TRADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1787, 19 June 1906, Page 3

BRITISH SHIPPING TRADE.

MR FRANK BULLEN’S VIEWS,

Mr Frank T. Bulleo, the eminent writer on the sea, seamen, and shipß, was interviewed on the proposed joint action | of the Cunard, P. and 0., and Paoifio Companies in scouring the freight and passenger trade of Australasia and the Far East against the keen competition of the foreign mercantile marine. Ho feared, he said, that some heroic measures were neoossary to check the rapid advance of the German shipping trade, not only in the waters of the Eastern homispherp, but in other parts of the globe as well. “Germany,” observed Mr Bullbd, “has made it a oardinal principle to destroy the British Empire. This is not my opinion. I base what I say upon the utteranofs of IheGermans themselves. The newspaper press of the Fatherland diffe s from our own in that there is Dot the freedom of the press in that oountry to which we are aooustouted, and if I read as I have read again and again the avowed intentions of the German to oust us from the soa, 1 know very well that such statements are authoritative if not aotually official. I have German friends who assure me that the Anglopbobiats in their oountry are few and iooonsiderable, but wbat oan I think when I learn that even the very children are | asked to ooDtribute towards the buildiDg of a great navy, which it is hoped to complete in 1910, for the expressed purpose of defoatiog that of Great Britain ? I have hammered at this question for years ’’continued Mr Bulleu, "ml have pointed out as ' one crying in the wilderness,’ I might sty that the Germane’ united intention is to capture tho British trade in all parts of the world, and that at any cost. It is no secret, never has bten, for they are so contemptuous of os and our power that they make no attempt to bide their hatred |of us, nor their object of destroying us. I admire the Germans very mnoh for their organisation, but it is a terrible tbiog. when you come to think of it, that not in war time, but oo the lines of peace, there is a great and potvo-ful nation with the single aim before it of destroying what is our life—our mercantile marine. Let me tell you that when I was at St, Thomas, in the West Indies, recently, no less than I seven 6000 ton vessels of the HamburgAmerika line, all flying light, arrived there withrn five days, and I gathered that there was an average of one steamer daily in or out oaliiDg at the port. VVhat for ? I kaow St. Thomas is a coa'ing station of the oompaDy, but there is no trade at the Island. No; lam sure these greet German vessels travel rouod the world as ad vertisementc. They will take anything they oan get, and a £200,000 or £150,000 ship will put into a port for a single passenger or £lO worth of cargo. Now, no company could do this kind of business aad exist. There mast be some heavy Government sub idy behind it all. I said so, too, and Herr Thoman, the managing director, replied in prict. He epeke rather sarcastically of my ability as a critic, and he denied that his company, (he Ham-burg-Amerika, received one penny in subsidy from the German Government; but he did not supply a tittle of proof in sups port of his statement. Germany is a large and a riob oountry, and ie aelf-oontainftd, to emigrate, but I can see no other reason for the rapid expansion of the German mercantile marine than a gigantic attempt to rnin ns by striking us iu our mo?t vulnerable part—our mercantile marine ”

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. 11 How would you propose to combat this competition ?” Mr Bullen was asked. " There should be a really serious reoog* nitioD upon the part of persons in power at Home of the situation of our mercantile marine. Just imagine how terribly insecure England is in the matter of food supplies, all of which have to come by sea,,, Stop the mercantile marine for one wetk, and E-'g'and would be starved the Dext. The Germans know that as well as anybody; but they not only know it, ibey Bre doing all they oan so that when the right time comes they may t-trike the blow which will isolate Britain’s food supply, and shut up the British I lands, as Paris was shut up in 1870, with the Germans all around. Well, now, 1 have not seen it stated, but I’il guaraniee that there was do highly distinguished person at the recent launch of the Mauritania, the largest liner in the world, at any rate the cables say nothing about it, and if the Kir g or a Royal prinoa had been pressn I think we should have heard. Why, I was present at the launch ing of the Celtic, the Cedric and the Baltic, then the la gest ships in the world, and would you believe it. the people present were quite inconspicuous persons, directors or tbo company, journalists, and workmen. Is was also so simple and eo informal when the vessrls were launched, with cerem >oy than a email sobooner might be launched in Auokland When the gigantic bul’s of the ships I mentiooed had left the ways, a gentleman said, ‘ We’il now adjourn for refreshment.’ Si we had a stand-up lunobeo'’, and do I speeches, and that wan all there was about it. But lor k how different'y ihey do these thiDgt 'n Germany ? The Kaiser would have been present and launched the Bhip9 himself, if not some Royal princ s , and the cccadon would have been utilised for some startling speech—perhaps a slap at England, who knows ? But you must admit that this kind of thing stimulates in the German people a vigorous, healthy publio interest in the mercantile marine, which to us Britons is our very life.’’ " You know tbat the German Emperor has been described as the ' Advtrka ! ser "He is certainly a very Bbrewd mao, and loses no opportunity to preach the dootrino- of enlarging ths mercantile marine aDd tbo navy to the oonfusion of Eoglat cl ” "To what do you a'tiibute the buccosb of the G rmins ? ’ 11 Their encores is entirely doe to their patience in mastering details, to the attention they pay to their passengers, and to their eagerness to learn. What do you think the hordes of Will-educated poor Germans go to London for ? To Bit tneikly at our koeoj and learn ? No, but to -find out all we know—never mied salary; they don’t miod how, little they g, t—and to improve upon what they learn. Yes, no matter how good a man may be at aDj thing, others, if they learn it, oan always improve upon it, Bless ycu, in the old days, yet not so very old, a particular British steamship company, one of the greatest of them ad, did not fail to let .the passenger feel that in oarrying him and taking his money they were doiDg him a personal favor.” A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER. " The third-class passeDger, you will adrni*, isbow better oatered for than be used to bo on ocean liners ?’’

" Ab, cot only thitd-olass passengers were slighted. All were made to feel by shipping clerks and stewards that they were undor a great obligetion in being allowed lo travel at all. Well, the Garmaos saw through this at once, and, no matter the cost, they oatered for the British passenger in a’l olasses, and 1 did ’ him well. But I am really glad to sse that several of our best Biitisb lines have recognised the position, and are doing as well a 3 tbe Garmaus. I fear a good deal of mischief has already been done, but the combine to which you refer should be able to do much to retrieve tbe position. Tne people at Borne must wake up, wake up ere it be too late. There should be greater attention paid to the sub jeot by tbe Government. I don’t oare wbat party isin power. And you would find, if some Commander in the mercantile marine were deoorated by the Sovereign for distinguished ssrvioe, and the same interest taken by tbe British pcoplo at Homo and ia tho colonics iu the

mercantile marine and the navy as by Iho Gormans, wo should seo a roma-k»blo improvement. I have boon afraid that the Australian mail contraol will be secured (by foreigners. If this should bo so it would bo a deadly blow delivered at tbo Mother Country by her own ohildren, one moro shock in a series that may ultimately j prove fatal. By all moans let New Zealand keep her ooastal trade in British hands. Amorioa has boon straightforward over this by including the Philippines in their 1 ooasts,’ and Germany does the same. The Americans are friends of ours, but in matters of business they ore as foreign to us as tbo Gormans, and they regard us as foreigners, too, for ell shipping purposes at any rate. New Zealand no moro than Great Britain can afford to see the gradual absorption of British trade by Germany, or anybody else. I certainly hope that the proposed oombioe of ship- 1 ping companies it if has for its aims the ft venlion of tbo Gorman monopolisatirQ of British trade, will be entirely success