DENTU
e.
Arrangements with owners. It might be possible to enter
into arrangements with individual owners for particular ships
to be maintained in their fleets, with the guarantee of
availability
Such arrangements could involve
in crisis.
subventions, time-sharing with the Ministry of Defence, or
employment by the Ministry of Defence.
and relative
Options d and e would require Government expenditure, which would
have to be judged in terms of cost-effectiveness
priorities within departmental budgets. (This consideration argues
strongly against any general defence subsidy to the merchant fleet,
which would be expensive, go to many ships without defence interest,
and not guarantee any increase of availability of ships of such
interest.)
40
Consideration of any foreseen problems in meeting civil
requirements for ocean-going shipping would have to take into
account NATO's pooling arrangements. Because of interdependency and
treaty commitments any problems Of and planning to meet civil
shipping needs have to be seen and handled as Alliance matters.
Machinery for the allocation
the allocation of ocean-going merchant shipping to
meet the needs of the Alliance is well-advanced, but a full
assessment of overall needs against overall supply is yet to be made
(paragraph 33). The shipping resources of the Alliance are very
considerable, and it
it might be possible to go a long way to meet
particular shortages by diverting ships to operations for which
they were not primarily intended.
The considerable amount of
NATO-owned shipping on non-NATO registries could also be important,
as could be that part
part of the merchant shipping of non-combatant
countries that was willing to undertake civil supply.
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