IDLE SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1921, Page 5

IDLE SHIPS.

A SERIOUS OUTLOOK. 1 EARNINGS LESS THAN COST. CHEAPER TO STOP RUNNING, By Telegraph.-—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Jan. 28, 12.10 a.m. London, Jan. 27. Lord Inchcape (chairman of the Pand O. Shipping Company), in a letter to the newspapers, says that ships are being laid up all over the world and ports are congested everywhere. Thousands of officers and seamen are unemployed, yet a commission is sitting at Brussels to consider the advisability of limiting employment to eight hours daily. Before the war, he says, the wages of stewards were 70s a month, and they are now £l3 15b a month. This did not matter much during the war, when ships were chartered by the Government and the wages were a charge against the State. Now the wages must be paid out of the earnings of vessels, and the earnings will not pay them. The thieving that goes on at sea and at docks is beyond anything in history. "As things are.” he adds, "we would be in pockat by discharging all our men and laying up our ships in charge of a seventy year old caretaker and a few aged charwomen. The end will come and we will get back to a sound economic working basis, though that time may not be quite yet.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.