Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. THE MERCHANT ELECTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1739, 21 July 1917, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. THE MERCHANT ELECTS.

DISCUSSING the shipping situation, Earl Curzon, Lord President of (he Council, recently stated in the House of Lords that taking steamers of 100 tons and upwards, at the end of June, 1914, the United Kingdom and the Dominions possessed 10,124 ships, with a tonnage of 20,523,700. In December, 191(i, the total number of ships was 9,757, with a total tonnage of 19,705,010. At the end of June, 1914, in the same class of ships, all other countries possessed 14,320 ships, with a tonnage of 24,880,171. In December, 1910, the figures were: —Ships, 13,749; tonnage, 24,002,843. These ligures showed that our percentage of the total was, in the first period, 45.3 per cent., and 45.2 in the second. Turning to vessels of 1,000 tuns gross and upwards, and taking a later period in order to bring the ligures within the scope of the German submarine campaign, there were in June, 1914, just short of 3,900 vessels, with an aggregate gross tonnage of 10,900,000, belonging to the United Kingdom, This might be taken as more than half the effective tonnage of the world. On March 31st, 1917, the number of vessels was about. 3,500, and the tonnage just a little short of 10,000,000. The programme for which the Minister for Shipping was pressing would work out at 3,000,000 tons gross per annum. Bui ll' such an output was to be realised il would be necessary to provide an additional 100,000 workmen, and to double the supply of steel, while allowing at the same time the present Admiralty programme to proceed. Therein lay the difficulty of the ease. Government was taking the most drastic steps to acquire merchant ships, by building, by purchase, and by any other process which might be open to it. There was good ground for hope that our mercantile fleet would be superior to that of any other nation at the end of the war.