MISSING £400,000,000.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1921, Page 2

MISSING £400,000,000.

GREAT AMERICAN SHIPPING SCANDAL. New York, Dec. 10. Up to date the United States Shipping Board has spent approximately £770,000,000 in . creating and operating the American Merchant Marine, and has absolutely no record of how, of this great sum, about £400,000,000 was spent. This grave statement was made by Mr. Martin Gillen, the former trustee of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, who appeared before the Congressional Committee oj: Inquiry in New York., Despite the great activity of the Shipping Board and the vast sums of money handled, Gillen declared that there was a complete lack of system in keeping accounts, and cheques were paid out right and left by the treasurers, often without supporting vouchers and merely on demand, for great sums of money.

As an instance, Mr. Gillen recited the case of some Norweigian ship-owners, known as the “Strey group,” who presented a claim of about £7,000,000 for 27 vessels taken over by the United States during the war. No records were presented, but the claim was paid, and a commission was later sent to Norway to investigate and report. The records showed that the Government had overpaid the claim by about £5,000,000. The United States Shipping Board today has 1200 serviceable steel vessels, not one of which has ever been sent on a profitable voyage, and although the board only lias about £ 10,000,000 left in the Treasury there are unpaid bills totalling about £250,000,000. Mr. Gillen declared that he had no evidence of dishonesty, but that great losses were due to careless or incompetent management, wicked, wilful waste, and the harmful influence of politics. In the opinion of the witness there are no prospects of immediate relief, and the Shipping Board must carry on until remedies could be applied.