TRAMP TONNAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1939, Page 9

TRAMP TONNAGE

BRITAIN HAS INSUFFICIENT SHIPS. VITAL PART IN TRANSPORT. The report of the Deep Sea® Tramp Fact-Finding Committee, published by the Chamber of Shipping, lays emphasis on the vital part which tramp ships play in ocean transpol t. “The feeding of the nation and the supply of raw materials in industry,” it states, “are dependent upon the tramp tonnage. In time of war or emergency the existence and defence of the nation would largely depend upon the possession of sufficient tramp tonnage under the British flag.” Since pre-war days, it is pointed out, the United Kingdom, has tended to obtain its overseas supplies from more distant sources (writes the shipping correspondent of the “Daily Telegiapr and Morning Post”). The average distance of our sources of wheat and cane sugar, for example, is now 6000 miles. During the past 18 years foreign countries have substantially increased and are still increasing their tramp tonnage, while that .of Great Britain has more or less progressively declined. As a result, Great Britain now owns less tonnage than before the war, while foreign countries own much more. In particular, Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Norway have been flooding the market with tonnage. The report fully explains why foreign tramp shipping enjoys an advantage in competition with British vessels Some of the reasons for this are the lower capital cost of foreign ships, built in many cases with State aid, or purchased second-hand at veiy low prices; lower running costs; Government subsidies and indirect aids; much greater increase in building, repairs, and running costs in the United Kingdom than abroad, due largely to rearmament. How the difficulties of the tramp shipping industry are reacting on shipbuilding is disclosed in the following table of British tramp ships ordered m the last three years:— Gross Vessels. tons. iqqc 56 277,280 "" .... 18 86,080 1938 (11 months) 5 24,380

As long as present conditions and prices exist there is little prospect, states the committee, of further replacement vessels being ordered. In comparison, there are now being built, for competition with British tramps, a large number of modern high-speed foreign tramp and cargo liners, especially for Italy, Japan and Scandinavian countries. The report concludes: “The vital part which the British tramp shipping industry contributes to the country’s balance of trade by way of invisible exports and its position in the general scheme of national defence make the problem one of the utmost importance to the nation which cannot wholly be solved by the industry alone.”