An attack upon' the Government "decadence of Britain's mercantile marine," was delivered jin the House of Lords this evening by Lord Lloyd, former High Commissioner of Egypt and Governor of Bombay.
He siressed the strategic import-fence of the merchant fleet and pointed out that British shipping has Tate been virtually excluded from Baltic trade with Russia by Government-owned Soviet vessels, "We are being driven out. of Far Eastern trade, too, by subsidized Japanese competition," he continued.
"Trade on the Calcutta-Japan run {in 1913 was wholly British; 1 ix now 61, per cent, Japanese.
"Shipping on the Bombay-Japan route was practically all British [before the Great War but now it is 180 per cent. Japanese.
"This is in our own area while India-Japan shipping trade as a whole is now 73 per cent. Japanese.
"The same story is going to be told of Australia-Japan trade, which is now 7 per cent. Japanese. The same process is beginning in ACtrienn trade.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.