Washington, Feb. 27.
Maritime Commission officials said yesterday none of the nation's existing merchant vessels can be spared to Britain for the next nine months because they were needed to transport strategic raw materials necessary for the defence programme.
Moreover, the officials said, the United States required about 60 more 10,000-ton cargo boats to meet do-mastic requirements.
The present merchant fleet consists of 1.276 ships, totalling 7,500,000 tons. This includes the Great Lakes fleet and military transports. leaving only 331 merchantmen and 46 tankers, totalling 2,405,000 tons. for foreign trade, One hundred thirty vessels are being rushed to completion, officials said. with an average of one launch-jog every five days—United Press.
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