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Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1927, Page 2

Ok the making of books about tho war there 4s no end. Various aspects are being treated and many interesting subjects are dealt with. A recent publication dealt with by u reviewer, is

“The War and tho Shipping Industry,’’ which deals with an entirely new angle of the war topics. Tho work is one of the “Economic nird Social History of tho World War” series, published on behalf of the Carnegie Endowment for International Ponco, and it contains a well-written and valuable account of the way in which the shipping industry of Great Britain was affected by the war and by those administrative developments which were the product of war conditions. To quote from the author’s preface : “It is concerned with the effect of tho war on tho financial, character and internal organisation of tho industry; on tho economic status of the merchant. Scania n ; on the relations between- shipping and tho State, and on the development of shipping policy. It records the response made by tho industry to tho demands of war, the restrictions placed upon its activities and earnings by successive measures of control, the obligations imposed on shipowners by those measures, and the manner in which they wore discharged.’’ Tliero is no doubt that the reactions of the war on shipping wore more direct, more extensive, and more lasting than on any other branch of economic activity. In the first place, among tho great British industries shipping was the only one that was constantly exposed. throughout the war, to direct hostile attack, while in the second plait', shipping is essentially a key industry as a whole. Finally, shipping is an international industry. For those three reasons, therefore, the war history of shipping is peculiarly adapted to register the. extent of the economic upheaval caused by tho conflict. The great service rendered hv British shipping to the British and allied forces is shown by the fact that at the end of October, 1918, no less than 29.5 per cent, of the total available deadweight tonnage under tho British flag was in direct naval or military service. “Tt. is no exaggeration to say that- the possession by Great Britain of a mercantile licet much larger than was required for her own minimum needs was, above all else, the decisive factor in the war .... Without the assistance of British tonnage, the European allies could neither have .supplied their armies with the material tor war, nor foil their people, nor obtained the requisite fuel for their railways, ships and essential services. . . There is no more significant fact in the history of the war.” In view of the intensive German submarine campaign such service could only be accompanied by great losses. The war losses of British shipping (including fishing vessels on Dominion and Colonial registers), amounted to tho appalling total of 7,700,000 tons gross, nearly half of this being lost in 1917, when 3,730,009 tons gloss were destroyed.