A PEARL CASE IN AUSTRALIA

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIII, Issue 6497, 6 January 1939, Page 3

A PEARL CASE IN AUSTRALIA

JAPANESE INVADERS " 9 Japanese owners of three pearling r luggers confiscated for alleged trespass on aboriginal reserves in the Northern Territory of Australia have been successful in fhe first stage of a legal battle against the Commonwealth Government writes a correspondent to a Home Paper. The Darwin Supreme Court upheld a Japanj ese appeal against the arrests, and the Australian Government will now carry the matter to the High Court. A long and expensive hearing may be expected because the issue is vital! important to both parties. The confiscated vessels were members of large fleets with which Japan has taken charge of pearling in the Arafura Sea, and for which she must have convenient watering facilities to continue her operations. The Northern Territory pearling industry has been overwhelmed by the invaders, and at the close of last season the Japanese were planning to extend their activities to the valuable West Australian I bods. The protracted war with China has caused this new enterprise to be delayed, but probably it will be revived when the time is ripe. In arresting the three luggers last year the Commonwealth Government actcd 011 a special ordinance which, in response to much public agitation, had. been rushed into effect with the object of suppressing pouching- on the :;lioi iginal reserves. Trafficking in native girls was rampant among Japanese pearl divers employed on both the local and oversea pearling fleets, and the new law gave the authorities power to arrest any vessel found within territorial water- bordering a native reserve. A Lost Monopoly

The ordinance was not aimed directly at the Japanese. It had been proved that the crews of Australian luggers were responsible just as much as the visitors for interference with the natives. When more and more Japanese luggers began to appear during the 1937 season, however, use was made of the ordinance to give local fleets an advantage over the others. The Australian pearling masters had protested most strongly against being forbidden watering facilities, and the Government agreed to provide them with two supervised bases on the coast of Arnhem Land aboriginal reserve. The local fleets were permitted, in addition, to infringe on the three-mile limit for the purposes of navigation. When the Japanese asked for tsimii ar concessions they were refused. Then came the confiscation of their luggers. They retaliated by intensifying their invasion of the so-called Austra\an /"ailing lie.iis over \nich urtil J 336 the local fleets had he'd monopoly. They announced also that they would no longer use Darwin for fuelling and victualling. So large have their fleets become that if they abide by this decision to boycott Darwin the township will be deprived of trade which last year proved to be worth almost as much as the local industry . Before July, 1936, only one Japanese pearling vessel had ever been seen in Darwin Harbour, but last season at least one came into port every week. As many as 10 were anchored in front of the Royal Australian Navy fuel tanks at one time. Most of them sought fuel and food supplies. Sometimes they asked for medical aid, for pearling is a hazardous occupation; and usually they required repairs tc their crude ioil engines. Like most men who follow perilous occupations, pear divers are extravagant money spenders; figures showed that the visiting luggers spent an average of aboui £600 each in Darwin while the seasor lasted. If their trade had been desim the township might have regainec what it had lost through the eclipse of the local pearlers by the mors modern and efficient fleets from Japar At the close of last season there wer< nearly 200 Japanese luggers on the Arafura Sea beds, which extend fo: about 250 miles from Goulburn Island to Cape Wessel on the north west corner of the Gulf of Carpentarij Between them they shipped ever; month 1,000 toils of mother-of-pear to Palao, in the Caroline Islands which is Japanese mandated territory During recent years the total produc tion of the Northern Territory pearl ing fleets has been as low as 474 ton for the whole of one season. Well-Equipped Vessels Fast, elaborately equipped vessels the Japanese luggers are frequentl; commanded by experienced masters who have seen service in the mei chant marine. They are accompanie often by technical experts. Each flee is served! by a mother ship and some times an additional supply ship. Spe< ially built sampans with a cruisin speed of about 15 knots were intn duced recently for tlhe transport < young live shell to nurseries estat lished near Palao. The visitors ha l outnumbered, outgrown and outwi

ted the local fleets. Their luggers carry five divers each, and shifts are so arranged that three men are constantly on the ocean bed. The Darwin luggers carry only two divers each and in addition to gathering shell, these two have to attend to the navigation of the boats. The eclipse of the pearling industry in the Northern Territory is not of great consequence because there it means little to the Commonwealth as a whole. Apart from those in executive positions and one or two clerks, no white man is employed by the Darwin master pearlers. Certainly no A'hite man goes to sea on their boats unless it be for a trip to the neighooiuing islands. The industry is entrusted to indentured labour imported from Japan uxl Koepang. Malays from Koepang Jo the more menial work. The Japanese divers are paid £3 a month and receive £20 a ton for shell brought back to port. Japanese engineers and receive £10 and £9 a month, according to seniority, and they are obliged to find their own tools. Seamen get only £4 a month and usually ono half of the importation fees for bringing them into the country is deducted from their wages. None is entitled to compensation for injury or death. Thus the master pearlers have the unique privilege for Australia of procuring labour at much below Arbitration Court award rates. From time to time they fall back on financial grants from the Government.

If and when the Japanese turn their attention to the valuable West Australian pearling fields, there will be matter lor national alarm. They would mer threaten an industry of much value, and for six months of the year their luggers would be strung along one quarter of the total coast line of Australia. Such an invasion could net be stemmed by legislation because most of the beds are' situated beyond territorial, waters. Existing provision for the confiscation of trespassing 1 vessels applies only to aboriginal reserves, and there are no such reserves in the vicinity of the West Australian fields. The foreigners will have to be met with fleets as efficient as their own and matched in fair competition by the West Australian pearlers.