INDIAN MERCANTILE MARINE case

THE Indian Mercantile Marine Committee, which has finished recording evidence in Bombay, has heard a number of Indian and European merchants and others interested in the shipping trade and industry. Their written statements as well as oral evidence indicate that Indians and Europeans look at the question from two different angles. Indian shipping is at present almost entirely in the hands of powerful British companies. It was stated by the Indian witnesses that not more than 10 per cent of Indian coastal trade and 2 per cent of other ocean traffic was carried on by Indian shipping firms — that is, those registered in India, though the ships themselves are not manned by Indians. It was also pointed out that Rs 30-40 crore are in this way lost to India annually and go to enrich British shipping companies. It must be remembered in this connection that the attempts actually made to start Indian shipping companies to carry coastal trade were defeated by powerful British firms which adopted unfair methods of competition. None of these facts, however, were taken into consideration by many of the European witnesses who opposed the suggestion to form an Indian mercantile marine with state aid and protection to ship building in India and the formation of shipping companies for carrying the coastal traffic. These witnesses adhered to the view that there must be open competition, fair or unfair, and that the industry in India, which was weak or non-existent, should not be revived with state aid. It is all very well for those who now enjoy the monopoly of the trade in India to say so, but no country in the world would ever allow its own opportunities to be snatched away by foreign competitors in this manner.

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