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Terchant Fleet in War Time.
The British Government has decided to take drastic and speedy
steps to ensure that the Merchant Fleet is brought up to a standard
which will secure the nation's food supplies in time of war. At
the second reading in Parliament of a Bill aiming et assisting
British shipping, the President of the Board of Trade, Ir. Oliver
Stanley, pointed out that though the merchant navy is a great
national asset in peace time, in time of war it becomes a vital
necessity.
The Government's proposals for the aid of the industry include
subsidies to cargo ships for a period of five years at the rate of
£2,750,000 per year leans for the building of cargo ships to an
aggregate amount of £2,600,000, and a sum of £10,000,000 to assist
liners
suffering financial loss due to competition of
foreign ships which are subsidised by their Governments. By buying
and building a certain number of slips as reserve in emergency, the
Government itself intends to become a ship-owner, and it is good
news for the shipyards that definite orders and proposed orders for
new merchant shipping now amount to a total of one million tons.
Opinions differ as to the advantages of oil-burning over coal-
burning ships, but, in view of Britain's great wealth of coal and
the country's lack of natural oil resources within its own shores,
it has been decided that the building subsidy shall benefit
primarily the coal-burning type of new vessels. Another condition
is that any ship applying for subsidy must undertake to employ
British searen wherever possible.