Catalogue description Board of Trade: Imperial Shipping Committee and Commonwealth Shipping Committee: Minutes, Correspondence and Papers

The Imperial Shipping Committee was appointed on 15 June 1920 by Lloyd George, and its constitution was reviewed in accordance with a Resolution of the Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa. Its terms of reference were twofold:

• to inquire into complaints from persons and bodies, regarding ocean freights, facilities and conditions in the intra-Imperial trade and questions of a similar nature. They reported their conclusions to the interested governments
• to survey maritime transport facilities on routes that appeared to the Committee necessary for trade within the Empire, and to make recommendations for the co-ordination and improvement of those facilities regarding the type, size and speed of ships; the depth of water in docks and channels; the construction of harbour works. Air transport facilities on the routes in question were also taken into account

The Committee consisted of a Chairman, and fifteen other members; the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand were directly represented; India was initially represented by a British civil servant who was replaced by her High Commissioner; the dependent territories were represented by the Colonial Office reporting directly to the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies; Eire was added in 1926 and Southern Rhodesia in 1936; after 1945 other new members joined as they achieved autonomy. Five other members were co-opted by the Committee; these normally included two shipowners, one shipbuilder, one industrialist and one merchant. Close liaison was maintained with the Commonwealth Air Transport Council.

On 5 January 1948 it was agreed by all the participating governments that the Imperial Shipping Committee should be renamed the Commonwealth Shipping Committee.

Most of the Committee's enquiries were into specific matters raised by member governments. Two of the earliest reports of the Committee (Nos 3 and 5) dealt with the Deferred Rebate System existing between the UK and Australia. Later reports dealt with discrimination in the freight rate of Canadian flour as with American flour shipped via American ports; Hudson Bay insurance rates; port facilities in a number of British colonies, notably the West Indies; British shipping in the Orient. The Committee also prepared a large number of unpublished reports, following the reference of specific matters to it. The Committee was dissolved in 1965.