Business: Merchant Marine

To a batch of ship reporters who clambered on to the Majestic as she docked in Manhattan last week, President P. A. S. Franklin of the International Mercantile Marine seemed like a Buddha incarnate, for they insistently wanted to know whether he had consummated his sale of the White Star Line (TIME, May 17 et ante) and if so whether he intended to buy U. S. Shipping Board vessels with the money.

Mr. Franklin smiled much, spoke little. The sale was off for the present on account of the British strike (see p. 11); if the sale were finally consummated the I. M. M. might act as the White Star agents in the U.S. and Canada; purchase of Shipping Board vessels still remained an indefinite possibility; I. M. M. stockholders would be fully informed of their executives’ activities.