THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AS A SHIPOWNER DC rue Eames OF
TR. "srscrarean Sru,—Your correspondent " A Jeffersonian Democrat " asks in his letter under the above title in the Spectator of January 16th whether there is any modern precedent for State ownership of a merchant marine. One is to be found in Australia, where the Labour factions have bad a good run of late. According to the Shipbuilding and Shipping Record of August 6th last, the Fisher Government some two and a half years ago bought a steamer—the 'Stuart '—from a private company for £10,400, and another 25,900 was expended in refitting hen She earned in two years £2,381, and was sold
last summer for £6,200, the estimated lose of £10,000 falling on the shoulders of the electorate. Another State-owned steamer is the 'Western Australia,' purchased in 1912 by the Labour-governed State bearing the same name. She was bought for £39,500, and altogether cost about 273,000. The Government were then trying to sell the ship for £45,000. There are, of course, other instances, particularly where a shipping company has been so backed up, subsidized, and financed by a State as to make the concern to all intents and purposes a State-owned company. One of this class is the Lloyd Braziliero Fleet, which the Brazilian Government put up for sale last year, without, however, finding a purchaser.—
I am, Sir, dcc., SHIPOiVN1113.
[Our correspondent forgets an earlier precedent, the London County Council's attempt to run a fleet of passenger steamers on the Thames. The result is never mentioned in Progressive circles in the Metropolis.—En. Spectator.]
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