xii 



Thirty -seventh Annual Report 



all tied up in stocks of cured herrings, they in turn were compelled to 

 discharge their employees. The cessation of fishing operations also 

 reacted immediately on the subsidiary industries — sail, buoy, oilskin, 

 net, box, basket, and ice-making, etc., and the persons engaged therein 

 found themselves either thrown idle, or with that prospect confronting 

 them in the near future. 



A special meeting of the Board was immediately called to consider 

 the unprecedented situation thus created, and a Committee was ap- 

 pointed to formulate measures for meeting the situation. This Com- 

 mittee, after numerous consultations with the Trade, drew up a series 

 of recommendations designed to facilitate the disposal of the stocks 

 of cured herrings on hand, to enable the industry to be carried on, 

 and to restore the credit of curers and fishermen by granting advances 

 on the security of unsold herring stocks and of steam drifters. 



Although the Committee's proposals were not adopted in their 

 entirety, a scheme was eventually inaugurated for assisting traders 

 by granting advances on the security of outstanding foreign trade 

 debts (extended later to consignments of cured herrings lying abroad 

 but unsold), while fishermen whose vessels had been acquired partly on 

 mortgage were protected by the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, and 

 as in the meantime the Admiralty had intimated that fishing could be 

 engaged in in the North Sea under certain restrictions, and on the 

 West Coast without any restrictions, and a Government scheme of 

 war insurance of steam fishing vessels had been instituted, a measure 

 of confidence was ultimately restored. 



Fresh problems, however, now arose. It soon became evident 

 that any new markets which might be found would absorb only a 

 small proportion of the stock of cured herrings, and that the only hope 

 of disposing of them lay in getting them into Eussia. Efforts were 

 accordingly concentrated on exporting them to that country by way 

 of Archangel, although, owing to the great congestion prevailing at 

 that port, and the exiguous means of communication with the interior, 

 this enterprise was in the nature of a forlorn hope. The necessities 

 of the situation were, however, frequently and strongly impressed 

 upon the Departments concerned, and the representations made to 

 the Russian authorities were so far successful that by the Autumn of 

 1915 practically the whole of the stocks on hand at the outbreak of 

 war had been successfully transported to the interior of Russia. 



The harmonising of naval and fishing operations presented another 

 serious difficulty, as it was necessary throughout the war, in the 

 interests of national safety, to prohibit fishing operations in large 

 areas round the Scottish coasts, in order to simplify naval operations. 

 This inevitably bore very hardly upon the fishing industry, and 

 constant representations were received from the various fishing 

 interests affected soliciting the aid of the Board in securing some 

 modification of these restrictions, and these were sympathetically 

 received by the Admiralty. Moreover, as the submarine menace 

 intensified the problem of the national food supply, the difficulty 

 of reconciling fishing and naval interests tended to increase rather 

 than diminish. The Board were not only therefore constantly 

 consulted by the Naval Authorities, but were in virtue of their office 

 the custodian of fishing interests, and they are glad to reflect that, 



