The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1916. AFTER-WAR SHIPPING PROBLEMS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 30, 2 September 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1916. AFTER-WAR SHIPPING PROBLEMS.

Many very boastful statements have been made l>y Germany regarding' readiness for taking a front place inl the world's shipping competition as soon as the war is over. We are I told that the two greatest German steamship lines have completed, or are completing, seven vessels of over 30,000 tons each. It lias been also asserted that in the first days of peace the (German passenger and cargo services will be running with all tlieii- old power, and Germany will be far better equipped than Britain, be-! cause. Britain has had to devote most of her yards to Admiralty work, and whereas every German vessel would lie in perfect order when peace was declared, British merchantmen would be suffering from the wear and tear of war service. Germany's blind belief in some fixed idea of German super-excellence, has led to trouble for her own 'people before this, and though it is probably true that Germany may, even timing these war days, build many new merchant ships, the programme is nob likely to be carried out according to the German idea. Discussing recent utterances, on the subject the Auckland Star remarks editorially: This idea of a. cloud of merchantmen issuing out alter the war to recapture trade from tired British shipping is pretty, but .several- factor,-, wdl work against its fulfilment. To begin with British companies are alive to the danger, and are taking steps to meet it. They are combining for attack and defence. They are extending tlie use of oil as fuel. Then the stimulus of war will have an important effect on the shipbuilding industry. Quicker and more economical methods will be employed. Already several of the leading companies have combined in a scheme to imild ships more cheaply. The main idea is that by standardising parts •Treat economies can lie effected. "To turn out ships like motor-cars" is the ideal, and the plans which have been prepared provide for the simultaneous construction of nine or ten huge ships. Thirdly, while British companies have been putting large sums to reserve from their enormous pro-; fits Gorman oversea trade has been at a standstill, idle ships have been J -'eating their heads off," and money ;

spent in now ships has had to come out of reserves?* Gofrti'ijjjn^>tfiiurs;hope' for Government assistance* but- how mini) will the Government be able to' do? This brings us to the most important of the considerations ignored by Germans—the fact that this is all going to happen after the war. They have not yet begun to realise that "after the war" means alter defeat, when their country will be in an unprecendeuted condition of economic collapse. They do not realise that it lies with the Allies to say when and on what conditions German • ships will resume trading. "If by some' miracle every Entente gun and every Entente soldier were swept out of existence to-morrow," says Sir Edward Goschen, who was British Ambassador in Berlin at the outbreak of | war, "it would still be for the Entente Fleets at their pleasure to determine whether a single German merchant vessel should issue from the Heligoland Bight." This state-] ment, addressed to the Swiss, was republished in Germany, and received with angry derision, but the truth ofj it will press home as the months pass. |