NEW TRADE FLEET.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1925, Page 4

NEW TRADE FLEET.

— GERMANY’S 450,000 TONS A YEAR. Air Christopher Hart writing from Hamburg to the “Daily Alail” on September sth, says:—. Impenetrable mystery shrouds the birth of the great new German mercantile fleet.

Search the balance sheets of the big shipping eomanies and the offcial records as one will, no clue is discoverable as to the aetal sums of money expended by the German Government and the shipping companies on the new tonnage. Ask the managers of the Hamburg and Bremen shipping firms about the 'Source of these funds and they at once shrivel into indignant silence. On this subject, like all the high priests of German industry and finance, they have good reasons for reticence and are as clo.se as any Heligoland oyster. To understand what has happened in the last few years it should be remembered that in 1920 Hie German shipping companies had practically to start again from scratch. Of the odd 5} million tons of steel shipping they possessed in 1914. they had to surrender about -If million tons as a penalty for the “sink without trace” tactics practised by them during the war. WILY TEUTONS. Tn the three and a half years that have elapsed since the confiscation of her merchant licet tills “down-trodden, poverty-stricken and exhausted” country has somehow or other not only found the money necessary for the repurchase of various valuable units of her old mercantile fleet hut has also managed to build new steam and motor tonnage at an average rate of about 1f,0.000 tons gross per year. This remarkable building achievement is actually espial to that of the average of the lour halcyon years ot German shipbuilding. 1910-1911, when the Fatherland was rolling in wealth. If Albert Ballin. the organising genius who, largely at our expense, built up the Ilainhnrg-Americau Line, had at the close of the war been able to foresee that Great Britain would he soft enough, to permit the Germans to construct a. mercantile fleet ot such dimensions before paying their reputation debts he would assuredly never have shot himself. Since Ballin’s 'death, however, the wily Teutons have contrived to persuade Mr l.lovd George and a large section of the British. Press that tliev could never, never pay reparations unless they were enabled to earn money by importing and exporting in German bottoms. THE NEW NAVY. When in 1920 the fireman shipping companies succeeded in persuading the German Government to grant them the then very considerable sum of twelve milliard marks, they were at first apprehensive lest the Entente should get wind of the transact ion and perhaps rein- it. t Those twelve milliard marks wore a*, the time deemed sufficient to rebuild one-third of Germany’s pre-war k.uuaue. about 1.800.009 tons. In BritishVards at that time this tonnage at a moderate estimate would have cost about 99 millions to build. Berlin assumed, moreover, that this new tonnage would take ten years to construct. ' But when it was discovered how little the Gullies of the Entente cared for these tilings, the pace was quickened and the task that was to have taken ten years was completed in a little more than three and a half. Owing to tin' depreciation policy pursued by the German Government it soon turned out that the twelve milliards originally granted would have to he made very'elastic if they were to prove adequate tor the ourpese fot which they were intended. Altet a good deal "of badgering by the industrialists Berlin eventually agreed, b.v means of a sliding-scale, to keep the funds at the necessary level until the tonnage agreed upon was completed. The exact number ef milliards taken out of the Government lnek.v-hag tor ttiis object, will probably never lie made public.' It is not necessary. The concrete values of the new ships themselves are a more permanent criterion. Phe new merrunCile fleet thus built out of funds that, really lielonged to the Eniente is everywhere in Germany regarded as the forerunner, the trainingground, and the justification of the now lighting Xavv which is to be. Xu one doubts that Germany could, if permitted by us to do so. with just as much ease rebuild to-morrow a substitute for that other fleet which is now the home of the conger eel at the bottom of Seapa Flow. Mill we permit her to do so:- 1 I sometimes begin to wonder. BRITAIN'S STRUGGLING TRADE. LONDON. Sept. A. , That Germany is regarded by ‘1(1.000 I manufacturers in Great Britain ;is our j principal competitor is made clear by their answers to questions put by the National Union of Maliuiaeturors.

One of the t|Uestions asked was: Wliat additional workpeople do yon estimate you could employ it our home markets were protected The answer in nearly every case shows that protection of a particular industry would mean more employment in the industry. ‘•This country will never he happy and prosperous until we can pay lug wages for big work.” said Mr Godlrey Chocseman. secretary ol the union. ‘‘You cannot pay big wages until you get work and you cannot get work until you slut I out foreign competitive goods.” “Why are some people so anxious to re-establish Germany? They seem to think that if Germany disappeared it would mean the end of the world, but I think it would he the salvation of our industries. Germany lias got all the fruits of victory commercially. Her industries tire busy and thoroughly prosperous.” British buyers would sooner buy linnve-manufnctured goods than Ger-man-made articles. Mr C'liecscinan added, but they are unable to distinguish the one from the other in many cases, and there is a practice among some traders of importing German-made parts, assembling and finishing them off in England, and selling the whole as English-made. Mr C'heeseinan suggests that, England should take her share of tile repara- J lions debt in the raw material Germany possesses and our manufacturers want.