THE SHIPPING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1918, Page 2

THE SHIPPING PROBLEM.

Wl-iv j;e\v JIEALAXDE.RS' i SUFFERED, j. A statement made by the Shipping § Controller (Sir Joseph Maclay) in Lon- S dou a few weeks ago throws light upon, a tliu shortage, of shipping for the ear- | riage of hew Zealand and Australian 1 produce. The Controller explains that 3 every available ship has been used to | move American troops to France, and i that in this great effort the United 3 Kingdom has been compelled "to sac- § rilicu 1o a large extent the communica- 1 lions between the Mother Country and 1 the Dominions in the Southern Seas." i "Over 1,000,000 American troops have been brought across the Atlantic dur- j ing the past year or so," said Mr Joseph Maclay, "in face of an offensive by sea waged by the enemy with as great determination as he has fought on the Western front. To arrest all our transport movements, and particularly those of the Americans destined for Europe, every German submarine has been sent to sea." What has happened? The lives of fewer than 301) soldiers have j been lost. About three-fifths of the ■ Americans have geon carried in British ships, and the proportion is rising. While they have been- travelling to Europe the 7,000,000 British, Dominion, and Indian troops engaged in six theatres of war have been supported with reinforcements, munitions, stores and food, and their sick and wounded, car- J ried. a "Owing to the rapidity with which I men are now being carried down to the American coast, we have had to arrange for an even greater contribution of shipping, and it is probable that during the next few weeks nearly two-thirds of the troops will be carried in British ships. We are not 'out' to pat ourselves on the back, but' I might add that ships trading between the British Isles and tllie Far East, Australasia, and India have had to be withdrawn from service, and we have been compelled to sacrifice to a large extent the | communications between the Mother i Country and the Dominions in the I Southern Seas. The manner in which I the Dominions lhavo bowed to compel- i ling circumstances has been splendid. This concentration of shipping has meant the severing, of trade associations built up during long periods of years. That statement may l suggest the character of the sacrifice which the British people are making in order to facilitate, the transport of American troops. The stream of supplies must, too, be maintained—s tons per year for every American landed." Sir Joseph, referring to the transport of reserves at the front itself, said that ho believed the American Army now has in France a railway with more miles of track and a heavier equipment than the Erie Railway (which lhas 1987 miles of track). "There is no more remarkable feature of this transport movement than the success with which the Americans have transformed some of the French ports. I may mention the case of the Leviathan, formerly the Hamburg-Amerika liner Vaterland (the largest in the world). This enormous vessel recently reached a French port jj with 11,000 men n» board, almost 1 equivalent to a whole German division. | They were disembarked,. 4000 tons of g coal was taken on board, and in 48 ihours | the Leviathan was on her way back to § the United States. ' * "All that we have learned during the war in the matter of transport we have placed at the disposal of the American authorities, and they Uiave proved good learners. "The output, of American shipyards S this year will he entirely absorbed by o the demands of the army. The losses 1 of the other Allies are still in excess of 1 building These are facts which t'here ,| is a tendency to overlook, at any rate s in this country, and I am in entire < agreement with the First Lord of the Admiralty when lie said that we must look to our own efforts in solving our own shipping problems. That must be true for some time ahead, and our shipping problem is still serious, as the reduction of our imports and the scrapping of our foreign trade indicate. The importance of speeding up British construction cannot be exaggerated., for the tonnage problem is becoming every day increasingly the predominant problem of the war for the Allies. The war for the Allies is first and last and all the time a question of ships and yet more ships."