INTERNATIONAL STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 140, 14 June 1911, Page 5

INTERNATIONAL STRIKE.

SEAMEN GOING OUT. STARTED ON THE CONTINENT. ENGLISH SAILORS GOING OUT. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright) (Received 1.45 pjn.) LONDON, June 13. The international seamen's strike, which has been threatened for some time, is apparently about to commence. The seamen in Amsterdam have gone out, announcing that the strike is international. The men at Southampton announce that they will strike to-morrow, while the Glasgow seamen have already given notice of a strike on Saturday. NOT TO APPLY TO AUSTRALASIA. " This is not a thing of the moment. It is a thing that has been thought out for years," said a gentleman closely identified with the seafaring interests to a "Star" to-day. "The causes leading up to .. + ," he continued, " are the starvation conditions existing aboard. British ships, the rotten accommodation provided for the men. On top of all that, the slavish conditions imposed on the men by the Shipping Federation of Great Britain. These conditions, of which the principal is the branding of seamen like cattle (the placing of a stamp in indelible ink on the back of the hand or wrist, to show that he is physioally fit); and yet, having branded hin?, the same as a cow, they deny him the living spoil that the law compels them to give that animal." CAUSES OF THE STRIKE. "The Shipping Federation have declared," continued our informant, "that they will give no advance of wages to the seamen unless they can force it. They have also declared that they will not agree to a manning scale to ease the work of the 'slaves' of the stokehold, galley, and deck, nor yet will they consent to the abolition or modification of the degrading medical examination. THE CASE OF THE ANTIPODES. The present strike can in no way affect New Zealand or Australia. The seamen's unions of both countries being registered under the arbitration laws of their respective countries, they cannot participate in an international strike of seamen. The strike will affect practically all British possessions, Canada included, and Australasia appears to be the only part that is exempt. A GREAT FIGHT. " The coming fight will be the greatest in the history of the Seamen's Union and to further forward the battle, ever since June, 1910, the members of the Seamen's Union in Great Britain have been contributing £1 per month per man. When one considers that the organisation has a membership of 150,000, it can readily be seen that the fighting fund must be neices sarily large." Mr. Haveloek Wilson, secretary of the Tnternation Seamen's Union, recently announced that at a given date the International Seamen's Union, recently practically paralyse the maritime business of the world by a simultaneous strike, the object being to secure better 'wages, improved accommodation, and better conditions all round. Shipping men in Britain and the Continent have not been seriously perturbed at the announcement, believing that the movement would never get beyond the talking stage. Mr. Wilson has had several conferences on the Continent with the heads of the International Union, and after one of these he hinted at a strike on the even of the Coronation.