BRITISH SHIPPING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1940, Page 6

BRITISH SHIPPING

WAR AND AFTERWVAR POLICY STATEMENT BY MINISTER. SOME BALANCING FACTORS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) RUGBY. August 6. The Minister of Shipping (Mr R. Cross), interviewed, said the Government recognised that .British merchant shipping had fallen into a deplorable state since the last war which never should be allowed to occur again, and in the terms of financial arrangements with British shipowners regarding the requisitioning of ships—now made public in a White Paper —it had tried to envisage assisting British merchant shipping in peace conditions after the war. as well as during the war itself. Loans to shipowners towards the cost of vessels had reached a total of nearly £5.000,000 in respect of fifty-five ships, of a gross tonnage of 239,882 tons, while grants for building now cargo vessels were estimated to affect sixty-four owners and about a hundred vessels.

Mr Cross added that regarding the general shipping situation, the facts that not only had a large amount of Allied shipping been released for British use after the German invasion of the Low Countries, but also the liberation of merchant tonnage after the collapse of France, balanced the necessity, resulting from the changed sea conditions in northern waters and in the Mediterranean for making longer voyages. with larger cargoes and a longer average run, to bring essential goods to Britain.

Mr Cross also stated that steady and accelerating progress was being made with the arming of British and Allied merchant shipping.