The Shipping Controller's War Recollections In the course of his acknowledgment when recently presented with the freedom of the City of Glasgow, Lord Maclay, who was Shipping Controller during the war, said Britain directly or indirectly controlled practically the world's shipping, with the exception of that of Japan and the United Star It has never been sufficiently realized how Britain starved and denied herself that she might save those Allies who, without the help of British shipping, would quickly have gone down, before the enemy. in the last year of the war, British shipping carried for France nearly 60 per cent. of her total imports; for Italy the same was done; and when the United States finally decided to come into the war British shipping brought from her shores over 1,000,000 of her troops and enormous quantities of war material and stores. Would that our Allies in the war sometimes remembered more what we did for them, and especially those who, humanly speaking, would have been wiped out without such British aid.
I might also tell of the almost countless millions of horses, cattle and vehicles transported and the vast quantities of stores moved for Army purposes to the various centres, Which amounted during the last stages of the war to France alone to no less than 90,000 tons per day. There were many anxious days, many dark and difficult days, which can never be forgotten by those who bore the responsibility. One of them was during 1917, when British shipping was disappearing at a rate which mounted up gradually to about 500,000 tons per month. It did not seem possible that the war could last much longer, but happily at the critical moment the great convoy system was brought into being, which as time passed changed the outlook, and together with increased naval protection brought again brighter hopes and prospects. I can remember, too, a.time early in 1918 when 1 was suddenly called one night to give consideration to the possible immediate removal of our troops from France, when Calais and Amiens were practically open to the enemy and when little indeed seemed between us and possibly complete disaster.
Yet amid these strange and trying experiences 'I do not think that the heart' of any who bore the responsibility failed, believing as they did that, however grave and serious the danger might be, somehow right must triumph. I should fail in my duty, however, if I did not speak of the heroic work of those who manned the mercantile marine. None of the fighting forces played a greater part. The sailors who manned our great warships had protection unknown to those of the mercantile marine. The men of the Navy sailed in vessels of enormous power and strength, armoured and equipped with every possible protec-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.