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~ Marine Review FOUNDED 1878 SHIP OPERATION : Volume 64 SHIPBUILDING . April, 1934 CARGO HANDLING Number 4 Rschcan and British Shipping Policies there is no reason for a conflict of interests between the United States and Great Britain in their respective shipping policies. The British have a long standing reputation for fair play. American shipping may well. appeal to this traditional characteristic for justification. Again and again it has been reiterated that the basis of past and future government support of American shipping is to offset real differen- tials in cost due to the higher prices an Amer- ican shipowner must pay for the building and operation of his ships. All that is desired is to place the American shipowner on an equal competitive basis. | THE problem is approached with fairness, The existence of these differentials as be- tween American and British costs in their re- spective shipping industries is not a matter of argument. They exist, and can be readily established. To place the American shipowner on a parity in competing for a share in carrying, not the commerce of the world at large, but only a part of that trade to which the United States is a party seems eminently fair and reasonable. The importance of shipping to Great Britain is fully recognized and the United States has no desire or ambition to supplant Great Britain as the great carrier nation on the seas of the world. It is anxious to co-operate with Great Britain: ‘‘To restore prosperity to world trade on which all shipping depends and.to encourage the abandonment of practices inimical to trade.’’ To carry out this purpose British shipowners, through the chamber of shipping, have proposed in part as follows: “That the government should intensify its activity with all possible despatch in the nego- tiation of new or revised treaties and trade agreements on the following lines: “Great Britain, in consultation with the Dominions, should join with other nations in an effort to restore world trade. This group should include all the great creditor nations and should agree on the principles to be ob- served and concede most-favored-nation terms only to each other. Among these principles should be an obligation on each creditor nation to accept such payment in goods and services as will offset its creditor position and on all co- operating nations an obligation to stabilize prices and currencies and to restore the free- dom of the seas for peaceful commerce. Bilat- eral agreements should first be negotiated but should be framed as far as possible to lead naturally to the formation of a group of coun- tries which are prepared to trade with one an- other on the agreed principles. “In order to enable other creditor nations to take payment from their debtors and thereby to restore the circle of world trade every effort should be made to convince the world’s chief creditors that they cannot be paid either for debts or exports of goods and services unless they will accept payment in foreign goods and services.”’ There is little in this declaration of policy for American shipping to find fault with, pro- vided it is not taken to mean that the United States as a creditor nation should accept pay- ment for exports of goods and services in the services of British shipping to such an extent that it would not only mean the complete aban- donment of our policy to build up an efficient merchant marine capable of carrying at least half of our own foreign trade, let alone give up even the comparatively small beginnings of an American merchant marine in foreign trade so far made possible by our shipping policy. This we cannot and will not agree to and the British sense of fair play will admit the justice of our position. When we have finally convinced the British that we mean to stay on the seas and to build up an efficient, well-ordered merchant marine, adequate for our national needs, all thought of friction will disappear. Surely these two great kindred nations can and will work out an accord in their shipping policies. Let us co-operate therefore, in a spirit of mutual understanding and friendliness. MARINE REvIEw—April, 1934 "