THE CHEAP SAILOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 152, 28 June 1911, Page 4

THE CHEAP SAILOR.

The manifesto issued by Mr. Ben Tillett dealing with the employment of Oriental cheap labour on the British mercantile marine* is a well-timed protest against the careless acquiescence of .the Imperial authorities in this dangerous policy. No doubt it is an advantage to shipowners and shipping' companies to run their vessels cheaply. But to realize how serious an effect this practice must' | have upon the Empire's maritime future Iwe have' only to reflect that if it were 1 f generally followed tho British -people j would cease to be a nation of seafarers, I and all the racial Strength and vitality that we have drawn for Countless Ceni turies from the sea would become in [time a thing of the past. This is not I merely an economic question, and there. lis far more at stake than tbe wages; of British seamen or the conditions under i which they are compelled to work. The maintenance of our seafaring, traditions is a matter of vast importance to the Empire, and it is not to be endured that the British sailor should be driven from" his ancestral heritage, the sea, by the men of the cheap coloured races, who represent a standard of civilisation so much lower than our own. England as yet hardly seems to realise the peril in which she stands; for the "competition of Germans and Norwegians and

"Dagoes," who now swarm in our merchant service, is oi small moment compared with the menace of the cheap Oriental. The colonial delegates at' the Imperial Conference did good work for the' Empire 'by their demand for a "white" naval and mercantile service; and we believe that the whole Empire outside England sympathises with, the Australians who refused to attend the Coronation naval review because the vessel chartered to carry them was manned by cheap coloured labour.