Too Few Ships

Accumulations of Copra Cause Anxiety in Pacific Ports

THE position in relation to, copra ship ments in the Pacific during the past month has become acute. Copra is piling up in the Islands stores, not because production has increased—for it has not —but because there has been a sharp diminution in the number of freight-carriers available.

The most serious blow to copra ship pers was the action of the British Gov ernment in taking charge of the Car penter ships.

As is well known, Messrs. W. R. Car penter and Co. Ltd. run three ships— the new “Suva”, the “Salamaua”, and the “Rabaul”. For some years, now, they have been picking up copra at the vari ous Islands ports and carrying it either westwards around Africa to London, or eastwards to American ports.

When war broke out, and much ship ping was diverted, for other purposes, the Carpenter ships remained on the job in the Pacific and kept the copra cargoes moving.

But the Carpenter ships were not on the Australian register. They are regis-

tered in Suva, and, as Fiji is a British Crown Colony, they automatically came under British control when the British Government took command of all mer cantile shipping recently. As a result, the Carpenter ships are now simply part of the huge British mercantile fleet which is being directed from London, and they are not available, as hereto fore, for picking up copra in Pacific ports, according to the orders of Car penter headquarters in Sydney. As a result, very serious inconvenience has been caused, and some people who have seen the copra piling up in the stores have expressed alarm.

The position is not as bad as was feared, however. The shortage of ship ping in the Pacific is not due to a short age of ships so much as to the sudden general re-organisation of British ship ping under London’s central control.

At first, naturally, only the Austra lasian and Pacific cargoes regarded as most urgent, from the point of view of war needs, were picked up by the avail able ships; but, slowly, these more

urgent needs are being overtaken and, probably in a short time, there should be ships to handle the accumulations of copra in the different Pacific ports.

But there is no sign, yet of better copra prices. Copra still is under Anglo- French Government control, and, at the moment, both countries seem to be flooded with whale oil.

The “Red Sox” (Administration) team, winners of the 1939-40 baseball competition at Rabaul, New Guinea.