Mr. Edward N. Hurley, the chairman of the United States
Ship- ping Board, wrote to the Times of Monday a most interesting letter on the delicate question of the decline of the British Mercantile Marine and the rise of the American Mercantile Marine. As we pointed out recently, if the present process continues Great Britain will find herself at the end of the war deprived of her main source of commercial strength and wealth. This is happening because the larger part of British energy in shipbuilding is applied to the ccn- struction of ships of war. We expressed a strong opinion that none of our very loyal Allies would wish to make our merits in the art of constructing ships of war a grave disadvantage to us commercially. The Government, we said, would be greatly to blame if they had not in the most friendly manner made some kind of working arrange- ment with the United States. It is on this point that Mr. Hurley's letter bears. Though he does not go into any definite facts, his letter is as handsome and as generous as we should have expected, " It is unthinkable," he says, " that a nation fighting shoulder to shoulder with other great democracies should after the war turn its resources against them for trade conquests. . . . If our ships do not bring prosperity to our neighbours as well as to ourselves. our own pride in the achievement will be diminished."
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