Germany’s Busy Ship Yards.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1922, Page 4

Germany’s Busy Ship Yards.

(Bv Ernest h. McKeng.) HAMBURG. • It is almost easier for the proverbial camel to go through the eye of a , needle than for a British journalist to gain admission to a German factory or shipyard. For British journalists are not wanted in Germany—they see to.) much! A polite request having been met with a direct refusal, it became necessary to employ other methods. I gained admission to tho shipyard upon which I had set my Tieart, but the less said about liow I managed it the better- I had not been there for ten minutes before I saw why my request had been refused. For the scene was one of the greatest prosperity. And, according to Hamburg .shipbuilders, trade is in a very bad way just at present. The two did not tally. Here was plenty of work.

-\W, then, had they told lies about it? Had the question of reparations anything to do with it? I could not help comparing tins Ham burg shipyard with the last Tyneside shipyard I was in. That had been a picture of desolation. There were hut fiipro were few slups few men engaged, theie were . alongside, the plant looked old worn, and an air of depression hung over everything.

I But not so at Hamburg. T noticed, for instance that the majority of workmen were engaged upon tlie company’s own plant. >an cranes, slipways, yard locomotives al the things that made for the efficiency of the yards wore being overhauled. Why ? There was hot sufficient outside work in the yard to warrant this. There could be only one answer. This plant is not needed now, but it will lie needed shortly!

Germany is preparing for a big commercial offensive! There can he no mistake about that. Plant which has remained idle since the war is being overhauled and put into first-class condition. Every piecis of 'ironwork had been chipped, red-leaded and repainted. The Hamburg Shipbuilding yards are ready to undertake any orders that may come their way. From the point of view of preparedness they are far ahead of the British yards.

] talked to the captain of a British steamer which is supposed to he undergoing repairs at the-yard. “It’s all apprentice labour we get,’’ lie told me, “that is where all their skilled men are employed.”

He pointed to the yard itself and to one or two vessels which are being built for German firms.

“The skilled men work on those,” he added. “The boys are trained in

British steamers.”

The German linns have killed two birds with one stone. Labour is cheap in the Fatherland to-day. So labour has been kept busy. When there was no outside work to do, labour has been employed on inside woft. It has cost a little money—but very little money—--10 do it. Out of that small expenditure will come big profits. Suppose that the world went back to normal in u few months. (It must go back some time). The English .shipbuilding yards will be found unprepared. Half their plant is useless until it lias been thoroughly overhauled. Not so the German plant. It is ready—and waiting! And it has been made ready when the price of labour was cheap.

A “boom” in trade means an increase in the'price of labour. British firms, in order to put their works and plant in proper order, will have to pay heavily. 'With the start they have already gained German firms will be able to cut out our home shipbuilding yards. Their policy of keep all their hands employed during the present “depression” will repay them tenfold. And by that time the British ships which are now being repaired by apprentice labour in Hamburg y..rds will be ready for further repairs. Germany means to see that those further repairs are executed by her own yards. And tlie British yards will be frantically ende'hvouring to fight against the handicap that Germany is preparing for them.

No wonder a British journalist is refused admission to German shipbuilding yards!