arentiv certain sections of the shipping industry desired state aid in the ishes through legislation which would be generally applicable that trag industry. The Government expressed no desire to subipping companies in distress but indicated willingness to y means of credit based on commercial securities. The shipowners st the project proposed by the Government would not bring about „its a nice closer relations between certain companies had already ed by them in their own interests without any form of GovernThe basis of subwdy proposed by the shipowners was that the :li grant a subsady equivalent to the cost of laving up a vessel jesit methods for a term of 3 months; that cost items and subsidies : and renewed every 3 months. In fixing the amount of subsidy there estas dored the status of whees the cost of living index, the quotations ℗ Bets pound and other currencies, the freight market situation and other rs affectu g operating costs. To the expressed Government fear, that subsidy mpose unend irable burdens on the state, the shipping companies replied at the cost of their program would amount to 1,050,000 florins ($122,100) per tz or about 12 600,000 florins $5,065,200 annually.

le vernment stated that its object from the national viewpoint was merely aste the capital invested in shipping concerns. It stated that it could not 'ske ti e respotisibility of further aid without a voice in the management of Topicos receiving ad. It held that ail reasons for State interference would at as soon as the shipping companies have overcome their present difhtes ar i indicated a belief that a subsidy program such as outlined by the whers would merely continue existir g conditions; it was not considering a

pover the shipping industry and beaeved that when subsidies were not 1, the stockuoiders and creditors must bear the consequences of changed

ingly, after several debates in the second chamber the Government vede dar i the project was passed by the second chamber at d on July 22, 1932, was panne-1 by the first chamber.

FINANCE COMPANY ORGANIZED

e many for the Protection of National Shipping Interests is a Statei france organization in the form of a limited liability company for the se of aivarong funds to shipping enterprises. In promoting this project verr ment restricted its policy to the following three principal conditions: I ́e enterprise desire g hep must submit an acceptabie reorganization plan, " of which is to be giaranteed and which is to include adequate 2. I vestast on is to be made in each instance to ascertain whether by merger ther forms of close cooperation better resuits are to be expected for the future, Asa stance may not be given in the manner involving burdens too heavy treasury or apt to endanger the State's credit by ur secured advances. ingsize i the company for the Protection of National Stapping Interests, be tag ar, has for its purpose the strengthening of the position of the Nethervit fleet in the international sen-goi g trades". The compar y began -time on the date the law became effective and is to terminate of December 3. 146) at the annual meeting of shareholders to be held in the first half of the v-ar lekò when it will be decided whether its duration will extend beyond Decem1940 The shareholders may liquidate the company prior to that date.

CAPITAL

The authorized capital of the company is 3,000,000 florins ($2,010,000) divided **stares each of 1,000 florins. Two thousand six hundred and twenty-five ares were to be placed when the company began activity under the law, and of « 10 percent was required to be paid in.

arvaat the company may be only by and made out in the name of:

ise h.. gdom of the Netherlands which is represented for all acts and nonnected with the possession of shares by the minister of economics and labor. Notceriard shape g compar ies, by which are understood comparies sailing Þ.tel flag and operating between Dutch territories in Europe and in overscas tries, and between foreign ports.

Sound the share capital be insufficient to meet requirements, the Government treamiry will advance interest-bearing loans, or other loans may be negotiated der the guarantee of the Government.

MANAGEMENT

The company's business will be transacted by not more than two managers who will be under the general supervision of a board of directors. The managers represent the company in all matters. They are not permitted to act as managers of Dutch shipping concerns unless by special permission of the board of directors. They require the approval of the board of directors in the following instances: (a) when purchasing, selling, and/or mortgaging immovables; (b) when advancing loans to shipping companies and fixing the conditions under which such loans will be advanced; (c) when determining collateral which serves as security for the payment of interest and redemptions of funds loaned.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

The control of the management is entrusted to a board of supervisors consisting of five members, three of whom must be Government supervisors. The Government supervisors have the same rights and duties as the other members. The board meets when necessary, but at least once every 3 months.

CREDIT BALANCE

If after the liquidation there should be a credit balance, same will be divided among the shareholders in proportion to the number of shares they own.

(Sources: Commercial Attaché Jesse F. Van Wickel, The Hague; Vice Consul Eugene W. Nabel, Rotterdam; American Minister Laurits S. Swenson, The Hague; Wirtschaftsdienst, July 29, 1932.)

It

The company is popularly referred to in the trade press as "Benas", and, through 1934, had advanced more than 11,000,000 florins to 11 shipping companies. It also advanced so-called "wage credits" to 25 shipping owners in amounts equal to 15 percent of wages paid to sea-going personnel, in order to enable them to compete with wage scales paid in countries with depreciated currencies. was announced that further advances up to 21 percent of wages would be made against 1 percent interest, secured by mortgages on the vessels involved. Repayments must be made out of operating credits. No other financial assistance was extended to Netherlands shipping by the Netherlands Government during the year, 1934. (Source: Acting Commercial Attaché Don C. Bliss, The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 12, 1934.)

[Statement given on May 6]

During the past year there has been a good deal of agitation in the Netherlands to have the Netherlands Government advance a loan to the Holland-America Line for the purpose of building a sister ship to the Statendam. The Government denied the application some time ago, but since the previous testimony there has been a change, apparently, because I have here an official report which states that the Privy Council has passed a measure which will soon be submitted to the Parliament to assist the Holland-America Line in building the Prinsendam, a sister ship to the passenger vessel Statendam, which was completed in April 1929, and for the support by second mortgages on small ship construction. It has been reported that the amount of credit to be extended will be approximately 8,000,000 guilders. Funds will come from the work fund of 1934, originally totaling 60,000,000 florins, of which 20,000,000 florins have. been allocated so far. The ship is for the New York service. The CHAIRMAN. Can you give us that in American money? Mr. SAUGSTAD. It would be about $3,200,000, I would say. Mr. HART. That is the amount of the subsidy?

Mr. SAUGSTAD. That is the amount of the loan. That is a loan by the Netherlands Government.

Mr. HART. The Statendam cost a little over $9,000,000, did it not? Mr. SAUGSTAD. I am not aware of that. I cannot say. Apparently the company has resources of its own, so that the Government would be asked to extend only a part of the necessary funds.

Vr SAUGSTAD. With the consent of the committee, I will make a ar statement on the finance situation of Norway, and I believe a stion was raised the other day as to Russia. If you think it is dele I will submit a statement on that.

T2. CHAIRMAN. Yes, we will be very glad to have that, too.

VỀ SAUGSTAD. I have that, and also a final statement on Canada. The statement referred to follows:)

NORWAY

trised door sion in te tonnage market, Norwegian shipowners in pata of refinancing tonnage. The matter was first submitted to Paranaert, which, reached no decision prior to adjournment 1s rther consideration by the various slapping interests, the Norwegian Association invited its members; ip to subnat tiir credit repare*w of whje) indicated that 66 vessels needed a total credit of at her, of which, the amount of 29,290,000 kroner needed special Ise istter win it elgged the following amounts,

t was to advano ar garantee a furter 30 percest of the v. se of the im rigAZE security, repavatie in 10 years, and up to a total

For these the 8

w

ers Sap Cret mas de grand first mort, sge loans up to 60 perce tif the vale of the 1.6 A rwugia Stapowners Associati མ ༣s fau arantee soc 1ar a furt! er 15 percent, to a tẽ tal of 1,500,000 kroner.

From Monthly Revaw, insaed by Moscow Naro-iny Bank, Ltd, Lonion, December 1934) THE MERCHANT Marine of the UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS stgesed powerful merebant flect is essential to the Soviet Union, both for as her external trade Its sgt feance may be gathered from 1 * s the total cargo in connection with foreign trade carried over ** 1 the high fig re of 18,104,000 tons. set fleet of exarst Rain was or an extremely low level of develop19'3 1. t-tal t rage of the Russiat merastie marie comprised 500 000 ter s of which were steam driven vetseis and 257,000 ® !1*g$g*w gl« Carist Russia occupied ninth place in respect of anite vessels were not p to date from a tect rical point of view.

ling yards were gate ir sig! .ficant. At least tree-cp.arters ↑ fret us, to be critcred from abroad. So ir sagt feart was the atite in relation to tre volume of cargo to be carried that only be total cargo was carried in Russian bottoms

e war a cola derable part of the fleet was destroved, another part by the Russian Write émigrés in their flight at roa 1, the vessels bei g 1 in foreign countries By the end of the civil war, Ra's nerarte was reduced to about 300,000 tons, while most of the stapt uitg Geen destroyed.

སྶ ནཾཥ 3. Antrial Retzt, Jale 1 ail to June to 1934

REESTABLISHMENT OF FLEET

Thanks to the energy with which the Soviet Government pursued an intensive construction policy in this sphere, some of the leeway has been made up. Under the first Five-Year Plan the capital investments in this industry exceeded the original estimates and 1,233 million rubles were spent on river- and ocean-going vessels. The number of ocean-going vessels has increased by 120, while larger additions were made to the river fleet. The increase in the cargo turnover at the ports during the operation of the first plan was 92 percent, the total in 1932 being 49.7 million tons. In the short period of 4 years the mercantile marine almost doubled the quantity of goods carried in Soviet vessels from 8 million tons in 1928 to 15 million tons in 1932.

Some idea of the general progress in this direction can be seen from the following table:

As will be seen, between 1928 and 1933 the Soviet merchant fleet increased from 222 vessels to 352 vessels, or an increase by nearly 60 percent in number while the tonnage increased by nearly 160 percent. Recent years have also witnessed tremendous achievements in respect of the construction of new shipbuilding yards, and the reequipment and reconstruction of wharves. One of the great achievements of recent times is the construction of the Baltic White Sea Canal. Work is also being carried out to connect Moscow and Leningrad with the Volga River, which when completed will revolutionize the internal transport system. Noteworthy achievements have also been recorded in the navigation of the Arctic.

NEED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Though enormous progress has been made in respect of improving Soviet merchant shipping, there still remain a number of shortcomings that require remedying. Undoubtedly the chief of these is the fact that the existing merchant fleet is incapable of meeting the growing requirements of sea and river transport. The Soviet mercantile marine at present comprises an insignificant proportion of the world's total tonnage.

The Soviet merchant fleet at present carries only a small part of the total sea cargoes. Last year, for instance, it carried only about 20 percent of the total cargo turnover, the remainder being carried in vessels chartered in foreign countries.

It is considered that the most important immediate task is to accelerate the carrying out of the second 5-year plan decisions in respect of the mercantile marine. In the materials prepared by the state planning commission it is proposed during the period of the second plan to increase the cargo-carrying capacity of the existing merchant fleet by 74 percent. This, however, will mean that a considerable proportion of the Soveit foreign trade will still be carried in foreign bottoms.

At the present time there is a particular shortage of tonnage for dealing with foreign trade. With regard to the share of sea transport in the foreign trade, the following table showing exports and imports in the last 2 years in thousand tons is instructive:

be wen from the above table, transport by sea routes is by far the more e tratosport over land routes takes quite a small part of the total ort effectively the existing requirements, it will be necessary completely r, the work in connection with, shipbuilding. The present stipbuildtors are inadequate in many respects. The following table shows the et. n of tonnage in the shipbuiiding yards of the People's Commissariat vy in fustry

meet in with the building up of a powerful merel ant feet, t) e possibilities ang foreign vessels are not overlooked. The Soviet authorities have ame; & timber of vesseis abroad in the last few years and have repeatediv ither w... figness to place orders for ships in foreign shipbuilding yards -- that satis actors † rices and credit con P'tions can be arranged sources show the following comparative progress figures for 1930 and

CONTRACT SERVICES

en fit .res on contract services in Canada have doubled since 1950 because mules granted to services between Canada and the United Kingdom meri, Canada, Japan, and China. The development is shown in the tarie

Expenditures by Canadian Government for subsidized services, 1929 80 to 1934 35

4tion to its trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific contracts the Canadian Radway Co sequired a half interest in the two vesscis operated by De 5 Steamship Co between New Zealand, Austraila, an i Canada, now operatat the Catalan Australasian Line, Ltd The line is under a contract with a; add an Government, which for 1934 35 amounted to $118 800, in addi$ * up formet,tary contract with the Fiji Government for an annual subsidy teleration of cails at Suva