COSTLY FIASCO.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18547, 24 November 1925, Page 14

COSTLY FIASCO.

♦ THE SHIPPING STRIKE. SAD HAVOC WROUGHT BY COMMUNISTS. (TBOM OCR OWJT CORHESrONDINT.) LONDON, October 1-3. The seamen's strike, which has been in progress since August 21st, has been officially declared off in British ports. The decision to end the strike was reached at. a meeting of the Amalgamated Marine Workers' Union in London. This was the union--with a membership of only SO"0, compared with the CO.COO members of the Sailors' and Firemen's l"uion—which declared the strike. The following notice was posted outside the offices of the union at Southampton.■ "The Amalgamated Marine Workers' Union, having received the report of a mass meeting of conditions at various ports in the United Kingdom and •South Africa, considers that the seamen's protest was necessary and justified, particularly in view of the men not being consul tod about t'no wages reduction, ami resolves that under all the circumstances it is now advisable to bring the dispute to an end, but only on the understanding that steps \v? taken t-o organise, the National Maritime Board so as to secure effective representation of all seamen's unions and the right of qualified seamen to ho employed without P.O. 5 'a card which the men have to obtain before they can secure a job) or any other interference, and the right to enrol in an} - seamen's organisation thev desire. In the event of these decisions not, being complied with, a national conference of all organisations of seamen be immediately called with a view to action being taken to enforce the claim." The posting of the notice resulted in the attempt of. between 3000 and 2000 men to return to work at Southampton. Many weep unable to obtain their old jobs owing to the absence of ships abroad. So far a.s Southampton is concerned the strike has cost considerably moro than £ICCO in Poor Lay relief.

Communists' Opportunity. "It should be cli»arlv understood," says the "Morning Post," commenting on the strike, "that the union organising the strike was not the National Sailors' and Firemen's "Union, over which Mr Havelcck Wilson presides, but the Amalgamated: Marine Workers' I'nion. led by Mr Shinwell. The Xational .Sailors' and Firemen's I'nion has behaved throughout with the strictest propriety. Having agreed with the shipowners, through that valuable' institution, the National Maritime Board, to accept a reduction of. wages to the rates obtaining hefore the recent increase, if the industry did not show any improvement sufficient to justify the continuance of the hisrher rate, the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union held by their pledge. The acceptance of the reduction was signed bv some 50,000 men. It was then that the Communists, perceiving their opportunity, began to stir up discontent in the seaports. A reasonable justification of the strike was hardly even attempted. The leaders proceeded upon the familiar tactics of utilising a reduction of wages as a pretext for injuring one of the main industries of the country. Danger in Coastal Towns. "As no means exist for repairing the losses caused by such wanton and mischievous strikes, so there is no security that. they, will not recur. We believe that as a class, the seamen of the 'Mercantile Marine are of all men the least easily influenced: by shoregoing .agitators; and no one "can forget the heroic part they played in the war. Sailors live a life apart, regulated by' its own laws and customs; they are acoustomed to discipline, whose necessity they understand; and thQ fevers and discontents of the land are remote from sea life. But in the great seaports all . over the world there is a miscellaneous and a discontented- population, the hangers-on of the sea, and among these such revolutionaries as Mr Shinwell find-their recruits. Seamen coming on shore after a voyage may fall under the same influence, if only for a time. The danger for the. future lies, therefore, not at sea,- but in the crowded towns of the coast; and any measures that are requisite to deal with revolutionary -incitement, as such, are equally applicable to. the seaports. In what those measures should cousist it is for the authorities to determine. The strike among shipping, although it has done nothing but harm to the men who were deluded into it, should serve to indicate how dangerous an attack on sea communications may be."

During the two months which the strike lasted seventy-three, liners were held up in South African, Australian, and New Zealand waters. Among the vast quantities of floods they carried were 60,000 tons of provisions—meat, butter, and cheese —destined for consumers in this country. Maize and oranges lay rotting on South African quays. "Wool, hides, • tea, and many other commodities could . not be shipped. Services were curtailed, passeugers delayed, and sailings cancelled. The cost of the fiasco is incalculable.