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Show U.S. II REJECT I WW SHIPS Hurley Says- Final Action Will Depend on Condi- j tion of Grant. WASHINGTON, March 1?. The Ameri- can government may not accept the 100,- U00 or more tons of German shipping' In Chilean waters allocated to it by tho al- 1 !U-d shipping commission. Chairman j Hurley of the shipping board, said tonight . final action would depend upon both the j con ni tion of the grant a no the ships. j Mr. Hurley explained I hat tho original proposal, mad when he was in Euiope. 1 was fr the United States to take tuer the ships and use them until the peace 1 treaty was sianed when title to Ihem ! would be determined. This offer was re- ; fused by Mr. Hurley, who believed that 1 their use for so short a period would no: 1 justify the board i'n standing the expense . of the repairs. 1 Information that the p.hlps finally had been allocated to this country has just hen received at the state department. Mr. Hurley immediately ordered" an examination ex-amination of the vessels to determine the extent of repairs that would have to be made. Since she vessels have been tied up for more than four years, most officials offi-cials be! lew that tho'r engines arii in very bad shape and thai their hulls a.L-0 have been more or less damaged. The exact conditions under which the ships have been allocated to this country have not yet ben transmitted to the shipping board. If these should provide for the use of the vessels, only until peace is proclaimed, some officials sa'd they would not be acceptable, as it would require several months to put -the craft into commission. Three hundred thousand tops -of German Ger-man trans-Atiantic shipping' now in German Ger-man ports has been allocated to the United Unit-ed States. Most of the fhips are in good shape and they will be gotten out as soon as the American crews can be assembled and sent to Germany. German ships which were laid up in Peru and Uruguay were chartered some time ago by the United States and are new in operation. |