The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1908. CHEAP CHINESE SAILORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 142, 15 June 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1908. CHEAP CHINESE SAILORS.

» ■ - For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in ihe distance, And the good that ice can do.

The Liberal party which made so strong a fight against the employment of Chinese cheap labour in South Africa can hardly be expected to regard with satisfaction the rapid increase in the number of Chinese and other cheap Orientals now serving in the British mercantile marine. To do the Liberal Government justice, it seems to have done its best to enforce the clauses of the Shipping Act which provide a language test, and lay down other restrictions to defend the British seaman against foreign competition. But apparently a great deal remains to be done to prevent the evasion of the law. A month ago there were violent anti-Chinese riots at Poplar, the English seamen alleging that the Chinese could not pass the language test. Mr. Havelock Wilson, the founder of the Seamen's Union and v.he chief Parliamentary champioa of seafaring men, brought the matter up in the House of Commons, and was assured by the President of the Board of Trade that the employment of Chinese sailors was receiving official attention, and that the Trince of Wales was personally interesting himself in the matter. But even under these august auspices, the attempt to check this evil has not been attended with success. To-day we learn, that Mr. Winston Churchill has again assured the Seamen's Union, that Government means to enforce the law more stringently than ever. But while the number of Orientals employed on British ships has increased during six years by 17,000, an'l the number oi foreigners has increased by 11,000, the number of British seamen has risen by only 500; and whatever reason may be found to explain this, Lhe fact remains that the British mercantile marine, so far as its personnel goes, is rapidly becoming de-nation-alised. Some interesting figures bearing on this question were quoted recently in the House of Commons by the Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade. Mr Hudson Kearley is not a Labour -member, and, as he speaks officially, he will hardly be regarded as a prejudiced witness. He referred to the returns from the three leading London marine offices at Poplar and the Victoria Docks, which show a rapid increase in the number of Chinese shipped in British vessels. In 1900 only 448 Chiness seamen signed on; in 1907 1211 were engaged; in the first two months of this year 25G signed on, representing, as an average, nearly 1800 for the current year. The same tale is told by the shipping returns from Glasgow and Li* erpool, Cardiff, and Newport. In these outports the number of Asiatics engaged in 190;) was 1424; in 1907 the number was 3173; and taking an average from the first two months of this year, the number for 1908 is likely to be at least 3800. Taking in all British ports, it seems that nearly 6000 Chinese bailors will have been engaged on British ships by the close of this year; while it is a notorious fact that the proportion of seamen of British blood is steadily decreasing throughout the mercantile service. The Shipping Federation and the Merchant Service Guild explain this by alleging that British seamen are hard to get, that they are difficult to manage, and that their unruly and intemperate habits while in port make them a very bad bargain. But no one has seriously attempted to refute the statements made by Mr Havelock Wilson and the Seamen's Union as to the steady decline of the British factor and the increasing strength of the Oriental element in England's merchant crews. These arguments, of course, omit what is probably the chief cause of the anxiety displayed by British shipping offices to engage Oriental sailors—the question of cost. The Parliamentary Under-' Secretary to the Board of Trade recently stated in the House that "in no part of the United Kingdom is the Chinaman receiving the same wage as that paid to the British or European sailor serving on the same ship." This official evidence entirely disposes of the argument put forward recently by the shipowners in the "Shipping Gazette" that Chinese arc not engaged to reduce expenditure. In an instance quoted recently in a Southern paper, a Lascar crew of 32 stokers and engineers was replaced by 12 white men, and the amount" paid

in wages had to be increased from £56 to £ 103 per month. . The, fact is that, though far more Lascars or Chinese are needed than white men to do a given amount of work, their wages are verymuch less. In the face of these facts, it is futile to say that the shipping companies do not benefit pecuniarily by substituting cheap Chinese crews for the' more efficient but less servile and more expensive British or European sailors. But in spite of the preference displayed by the shipping offices for the cheap Oriental, the Chinese would find great difficulty in entering the service, if the language test, provided by the Shipping Act were conscientiously enforced. The Board of Trade officials admit, however, that the law in this particular is constantly evaded. Mr. Hudson Kearley has explained to the House of Commons that as the -law insists that the language test applies to all Chinese who are not British subjects, or natives of any British protectorate, the vast majority of Chinese applying I at the shipping offices claim to have j come from Hongkong or Singapore; ana he quoted some specific instances of misrepresentation to give an idea of the extent to which the Act is being misused. The outcome of all this is that the British merchant service is being rapidly flooded with Orientals, often unable even to understand the words of command in English, and forming a permanent source of danger to passenger, and ship in case a sudden emergency arises. As to the condition of the Chinese thus engaged, Mr. W. Belcher, the well-known organiser of the Dunedin Seamen's Union, has stated that these Orientate are frequently induced to sign agreements which they do not understand, and practically sell themselves into slavery. Mr. Belcfcer, during his recent visit to England, had some opportunity of seeing for himself how the Shipping Act is administered in (the case of the Chinese, and he has said emphatically that the conditions on which the Orientals sign on "virtually transform a British ship into a Chinese compound, the equal of which will scarcely be found in South Africa." The Liberals, who made "Chinese Slavery" one of the watch words of the la3t electoral campaign, will surely refuse to allow such a state of things to continue, more especially when they reflect that to replace British seamen by Chinese is not only to rob Englishmen of an occupation in which many of our greatest national traditions are involved, but to cause the inevitable decay of Britain's mercantile carrying trade, oi, which bo much of her prosperity depends.