BIG SHIPPING DEAL

Shannon News, 3 August 1926, Page 3

BIG SHIPPING DEAL

SALE OP FIVE VESSELS. TRADE WITH THE ORIENT. SAN FRANCISCO, June 16. The departure of the United States Government from active competition in shipping to the Orient, as the East is officially termed here, is being brought about by the sale to the Robert Dollar shipping interests, already operating in the Pacific, of five vessels of the American Oriental Mail Line for a sum of £900,000. When the vessels were offered for tender, bids were received by the United States Shipping Board of only two tenders, the other being on behalf of the Puget Oriental Line of £BOO,OOO. The president of the board recommended that both tenders be rejected, but the board, by four votes to one, decided to grant the vessels to the Dollar corporation at the price they quoted. Meantime, the representative of the Puget Sound line, trading out of the port of Seattle, which now has a half-million people, bid £920,000 but the board refused to recede from the position they took up, in accepting the tender of Mr. Dollar.

The fear of losing what promised to be a valuable adjunct to an already growing overseas trade, moved the people of Seattle to offer £1,000,000 for the vessels. An application was made to the Supreme Court of the United States for an injunction against the sale to the Dollar interests, but was refused. Although two western senators interviewed President Coolidge on the question, it has been decided that the sale to Dollar will stand. The vessels will trade in and out of Seattle, adding another unit to a very powerful coastal and overseas passenger and cargo Dollar combination.