SHIPBUILDING

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1933, Page 6

SHIPBUILDING

BIG ENGLTsH^C'HEME

LONDON, March' 22

Th 9 “Daily Express” states that members of the House of . Commons, rep.rc6er.Nng all the shipping constituencies, presented to Cabinet ;,a threeyears’ plan, to increase the. national spending powers :by. one - ' hundred--mil-lion pounds, hr.’""addition :to-' providing work immediately for 270,000 men.

The plan" includes scrapping 'tw ; a ..million tons of obsolete ships annually, and replacing them with one million tons of (shipping annually, the three yeans’ expenditure on shjp-building costing £45,000,000. Th e Government jis tasked to hack the shipbuilders! bills, .secured by mortgages on' the" -ships, for half their total value-: ' The Governntenf ig also, asked;, to gUait-niT-te© the owners 25s per ton -for the scrapping ships, at a.cost of £7,000,000. which will, be defrayed by th e sa -e of the. vessels.

A. memorandum claims that the-'.:ebst. to the taxpayer will be nothing; even if all th e shipbuilders defaulted, as

tho Government this of £22,500,000 c™ be covered by £54,000,000 saTe.d'.‘in-un-employment payment. ,■ The scheme was prepared by S’- 1 ’ Charles 'Barrier, ft. concludes 'with an appeal to the' Government _ immediately to assist in the completion of the Cunarder. The “Daily Herald” states that during the discussions, which were resumed on 'Wednesday, the Dominions protested strongly against th e British Government’s restriction of their exports, instead of trying to increase Britain’s purchasing power. The Dominions argued definitely that it there wV.ne an of forking-class spending power, the slump in prices would ha checked. They asked pointblank if it were th 0 Government’s intention, at a n early date, to initiate large-scale work schemes.