EMPIRE SHIPPING SCHEME.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1921, Page 2

EMPIRE SHIPPING SCHEME.

ADVERSE CRITICISM. London, Sept.* 26. Comment is devoted by the city editor of the Times to the scheme formulated by Mr. R. J. Turner, of Messrs. Turner, Davidson and Co., the brokers in London for the Commonwealth line of steamships for the establishment of a fleet of Statecontrolled fast oil-burning vessels, each of 50,000 tons, to accelerate communication between Great Britain and the various Dominions.

The writer alludes to the disadvantages of State management, and the undesirability of going in. for large expenditures, so far as Governments are concerned, at the present time.

He points out that the chairman of the Imperial Shipping Committee, in view of the cost involved, considered the scheme unlikely to be realised unless it was launched by one or more Governments of the Empire. The chairman also did not feel justified in asking the committee to examine the details of the scheme unless at the request of the Governments. The cost of the nine steamers required" under the scheme would be £18,000,000 at the present rates, and tbe Times considers that the time is inauspicious for Governments to build merchant fleets.

The scheme put before the Imperial Shipping Committee by Mr. R. J. Turner provides for a fleet of nine fast, oil-burning vessels, each of 50,000 tons, with high power turbine engines, to develop a speed of 26 knots when crossing the Atlantic and 25 knots elsewhere. Each vessel would give accommodation for 600 first-class and 3000 second-class passengers. The proposed services would bring Halifax within four days and Vancouver within eight and a half days of Liverpool, compared with seven and twelve at present. Liverpool to Sydney, via Vancouver, would then occupy 20$ days. The journey across Canada to New Zealand would take 19 days, a decrease'of 10 days. Mr. Turner also suggests a South African service of fortnightly steamships from Plymouth to Capetown, which would do the journey in ten days. Failing provision by the existing lines, the ships would be the joint property of the Dominions.