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Improvement in Phipbuilding.
2
Some months ago an announcement was made that a substantial
subsidy was to be given to British shipping by the British Govern-
ment. Over a period of five years nearly £13,000,000 was to be made
available, mainly for tramp shipping, including vessels in the deep-
see trade but not in the coasting trade.
The latest quarterly returns of Lloyds Register show that the
Government's policy has already had an effect on 3ritish ship-
building. As compared with the previous quarter there are now sixty
more ships under construction in British yards and after allowing
for new ships commissioned, the volume is greator by 195,000 tons.
331,000 to
There has also been an impressive increase
402,000 tons of the work begun during last quarter. Orders for
about 750,000 tons of merchant shipping have been placed during
the period; in the ordinary course of events, by the end of next
quarter, there should be about 1,000,000 tons under construction.
Thus the decline has been reversed in Great Britain, whereas
in other countries, after an advance at the beginning of the year,
the work in hand has diminished. Excluding Russia, for which no
information is available, the shipping under construction abroad
is 2,068,000, which is less by 39,000 tons than it was three months
ago.
British shipbuilding yards are also busy on naval vessels.
is reported that by the end of the rear forty now warships and a
number of auxiliary craft will have been launched, including five
battleships, five large cruisers, seven smaller cruisers, four
large aircraft carriers, from ten to fifteen destroyers and nine
ocean-going submarines. About twenty-five motor torpedo-boats
also are being built, the latest being vessels of 32 tons.
It