Shipping may be divided into two classes, both of which are of national importance. The liners, which comprise fixed services of passenger and cargo ships. These services must be maintained, and new tonnage built at whatever cost to replace lost ships. The other class is our cargo ships. Many of these conduct regular services; others are what are known as "tramps," and go where the best freights offer. It is the owners of the tramp steamers who have realised large profits by selling their ships. The Government in their shipping policy have entirely failed to discriminate between these classes, not recognising that the liner services involve a complete and costly system of organisation both at home and abroad, which, once dislocated, is difficult to restore. The urgency for additional cargo ships prevents the building of liners, and there must be a considerable shortage of this description of vessel when the war ends. Probably the cause which has been most detrimental and disastrous to shipping was the obstinacy of the Admiralty in declining to recognise the urgent necessity for building more merchant ships. They filled all the yards with Admiralty work, and when the violence of the submarine attack aroused the nation to a sense of the danger before it, and the cry went up throughout the land "Ships, ships, and still more ships," the Government then--only then--responded, and decided that further merchant ships must be built at once. There was great delay in giving effect to their decision to build "standard" ships--plans had to be submitted and obtain the approval of so many officials that many months elapsed before the keel of the first standard ship was laid, and in the meanwhile the losses through the submarine attack continued. The destruction of tonnage by submarine attack in 1917 assumed very serious proportions, but latterly the number of vessels sunk has been gradually reduced, and we have the recent assurance of the Secretary to the Admiralty that our methods of dealing with submarines have improved, and that we are now achieving considerable success in destroying them. The following statement gives the position to-day in gross tonnage:-- 1917. U.K. World. Sunk 4,009,537 6,623,623 Built 1,163,474 2,937,785 Nett loss 2,846,063 3,685,838 January-March, 1918. Sunk 687,576 1,123,510 Built 320,280 864,607 Nett loss 367,296 258,903 The nett loss of British tonnage of 367,296 tons during the first three months of 1918 was still very serious, but we were told that we were making distinct progress in our rate of shipbuilding, and the following returns seem to bear this out. The United Kingdom monthly output of new ships from May, 1917, was in tons:--