INTERNED LINERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 6, 8 January 1915, Page 6

INTERNED LINERS.

300 SHIPS IN NEW V<XRKI Approximately , 300 Germg. **, feting for upkeep'roughly £SOOO per m, are rotting: at the piers? in New fc Harbour, and the: question w&gh L becomes more urgent is '.How L will it he before they are -forced to the market and sold?" German „ requires that every shipowner in of war must pay full wages and ovide full rations to crews of vessels terned i» foreign ports, and m conmence the smaller German owners, my of whom own two or three vesI are gradually being reduced to ttkruptcy.., The Kaiser'promises to pay shipown|in full at.tl?e. conclusion'of hostili- % but German promises,'like their »aties 3 are- admittedly valueless.. ''Attempts by newspaper reporters to M-d German steamers . at New p," writes the ■correspondent;of the ndon "Shipping Gazette,!' /'have so • been'futile. I learn that every ipper and crew has been sworn to :recy, and every vessel is isolated, I men'*>eing confined to their ships I fear.':they' should get into trouble iore No welcoming gang-;

ok is .from ship to shore, in times qf'p&ace, and, -to obtain n a peep at tlipdeekof a German' |mer onemiistcKmhjl rope ladder Ibe met at v the : top by a sullen

lifcchman, who is' impervious to argutat and cajolery. ' . hn Hoboken,-*New Jersey, on the stern shore *of'Hhe : Hudson River, [ere the two. greatest German steW|p companies' Mve their own piers, r> cannot 67611 -get inside the iron tes, guarding the entrances. From

j» New York water front, however, fl from the river ferryboats, the aat commerce carriers of the Fatherid can be seen, looking bleak and •lorn, the paint peeling'from their les and their hulls the wateriine covered with clinging iiweed.v

'The activity of the harbor and the ;ular arrival at and departure from >ir piers of ships of the Cunard, lite Star, French Transatlantic, and ier liners Jbelpnging to the nations war with Germany must be a gall

wormwood to the crews of the inded German liners who obtain a

1 view of all that is passing. 'From tirfie to time there have been oors of preparations to make a dash freedom, but every vessel coming o port reports of being held up and

:hed at the harbor mouth by Bri-

t battleships, and such an attempt the Germans, they must realise, lid be little better than suicide.

'So far as can be learned,'German jenses are being paid through the dium of certain New York bankers ;h Berlin affiliations, but no one will fcard'a guess as to when'the payfits will cease. Oft one little'Ger-

n tramp steamer alone, I learn, the (kly wages amout' to £SO, with a like i for food; This class of vessel in I York is already up for sale, but re are few reasonable bids at a I when money : tight; freight ge, and. risks great!

"Naturally the two'big German comities can withstand a long siege. I extensive offices of the two ship-

ping concerns on Lower Broadway, New York, present a gloomy and deserted appearance, in striking contrast with their former scenes of activity and cheerfulness. Empty chairs and plosed desks meet'the eye on every side, and a quietude suggestive of rusticity and somnolence pervades the atmosphere.

"From oue of the few officials remaining in the offices of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company who consented to talk to me I learned that, both the Norddeutscher Lloyd and the Ham-burg-American lines are prepared to sell offices, fixtures, tugs, piers, and every available asset in the country, so long as they can keep their palatial ships and support their crews until the end of the war. This official admitted, however, that the struggle would "be a hard one, and estimated that if the war continues for a year his compJJJty will have paid out for wages, food, taxes, etc., some millions-of dollars."