Trespass Warning Given Seamen

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 1

Trespass Warning Given Seamen

(New Zealand Press Assoc»aiion>

DUNEDIN, December 6.

In a bid to end the Waihemo sit-in at Dunedin the Union Steam Ship Company today sought police help. The company also removed a television set from the seamen’s quarters.

Tomorrow morning the master of the Waihemo, Captain A. Dodds, and Chief Superintendent G. C. Austing, of the Dunedin police, will go to the ship to warn the men they are trespassing.

A warning was given to the men tonight by Captain Dodds and the Union Company wharf superintendent, Captain E. W. C. Robb.

Captain Dodds told the seamen that they should be off the ship by 9 a.m. tomorrow.

He also gave them an official warning that they were trespassing.

The seamen are not disclosing their plans. The Seamen’s Union delegate in the Waihemo, Mr D. J. Morgan, said tonight that the seamen would state their case to the captain and the superintendent tomorrow morning. Afterwards the men would meet to discuss whether the sit-in should continue. The manager of the Dun-

edin branch of the Union Company, Mr A. J. M. Leslie, said it was hoped the seamen would “come off sensibly” so that the new owners could take over the ship. Unloading was expected to be finished today and the ship cleaned and ready for the handing-over to the new ownners by noon tomorrow. The seamen began their

strike at midnight on Sunday as a protest against the Union Company’s withdrawal from the North American route and the inroads into New Zealand shipping being made by foreign competitors.