The Press. Monday, May 6, 1918. Our Debt to the Merchant Seamen

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16204, 6 May 1918, Page 6

The Press. Monday, May 6, 1918. Our Debt to the Merchant Seamen

We arc glad to see that a special appeal is to bo made in Canterbury for the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, which does so much for the men of the mercantile marine. llearAdmiral Halsey, / who commanded I . H.M.S. jN'ow Zealand on lior cruise round tho world, and went among all the institutes belonging to the Society, has bofno emphatic testimony to the . value of their work. Ho said:—"The v' work they have done in these past :u years has been a work that has "brought large numbers of men dur- / "ing the war, both in the Navy and ~ " the Mercantile Marine, to that pitch <"of perfection which they hare so •V " strikingly evidenced, because when ''they have landed and gone to those homes they have been taught what "is straight And right and proper; and *' they Have profited by it, and it has helped them." The debt we owe to fhe men of the mercantile marine for . their heroism and endurance during this -war can .never be fully stated. . Most people realise in some measure . what we owe fo tho men of thb Royal ■Navy, but it is not so generally understood that our debt to the men of the mercantile marino is equally great. The ■work they have done, in comparatively small. craft, in mine-sweeping, patrol work, and similar operations, has materially helped to secure our mastery of the sea, and it is work as ; arduous and dangerous as any seawork of the war. Apart from this, . tho sailors who man the merchant ships,• going about their "lawful occar "sions" as usual, despite the menace of submarines and mines, have shown ! true heroism, and but for their services *' keeping going tho food supplies of Great-Britain, we should ere this have been starved into submission. We belieye there as no case on record of a British seaman refusing to go to sea 1 for fear of danger, even when the submarine peril was at its worst. On the contrary, there are many cases of the crews of ships which had been torpegoing to sea again as. soon as they , were able, as if nothing had happened. • There -were occasions, it is 'true in ; which a spirit of flat mutiny was jßhown. Even when the British .Government, misrtakenly,. as wo think, had given passports to Socialist delegates to go to Stockholm to confer with other Socialists, including German .. V delegates, the British seamen absolute- ] Jy refused to work the ships while such i delegates on board. They have "pledged themselves in their thousands not to salute the German flag, or work German sailors, after the war, unless full reparation is made for the lives of British sailors who have been murdered bj German assassins of the sea, in, defiance of the laws of civilised warfaye- We admire them • for their Jjatngtiam, and still more for and steadfastness they have "done their bit" never pnee failing the waders -hare a practical fitatitudei po

theso bravo fellows by responding to tho appeal which has been issued on behalf of the Society. A Citizens' Committee has beon formed to raise at least £8000 in Canterbury for this appeal by May 24th. We hope not only that this amount will be raised, but that it will bo exceeded.