Mr. J. Denham Christie; chairman of Messrs, Swan and Hunter, speaking after the launch of the tanker British Resolution recently, said that during the past 12 months or so a great change had come over British shipbuilding. After many lean years shipbuilders were now in the happy position of having as much work as, they can do, yet they were in a very difficult position.
During the last 12 months or so costs had been rising greatly and wera still rising and many shipowners were telling them that it would not pay them to order ships at ihe higher prices now necessary. Ships took a long time to build and it was a long time before shipbuilders began to share in the prosperity.
His firm had three shipyards, two on-the Tyne and one on the Clyde, and since the beginning of this year they had"completed in these yards six or seven ships in all, Those orders were taken at very low prices 12 months or more ago when the Rise in costs could not be perceived, with the result that every. one of those ships had cost more than estimated, and there had been a loss on each one.
From Kobe the M.M. French Mail Andre Lebon is due to arrive in Shanghai on Friday, July 23, She will be docked alongside the China Merchants' Central Wharf from which she is to sail on Saturday, July 24, bound for Marseilles via the usual ports. Sailing time is set at 8.30 a.m.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.