THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT IN SYDNEY. THE STRIKE OF SEAMEN.

Evening Post, Volume XVI, Issue 284, 30 November 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT IN SYDNEY. THE STRIKE OF SEAMEN.

Telegrams from Sydney have informed our readers of the strike of the European seamen employed on the Australasian Steam Navigation Company's vessels because of the employment of Chinese seamen on board of the company's ships. Great dissatisfaction has for some time past been felt by the European sailors on this subject, and that dissatisfaction culminated eight or nine days ago in a general strike of all the European seamen and firemen orn ployed on the company's ships becauso the company had rofused to discharge the Chinese seamen omployed. The following is a statement of the facts connected with tho strike, copied from the Sydney Evening News :— Provious to the present rupture the company had three vessels worked by Chinese, viz , tho Black Swan, on the Fiji coast service; the Wentworth, ia the trade between Sydney and Fiji ; and the Gunga, in the New Caledonia trade. The results of theso experiments of Chinese labor have been closely watched by the company, and, acting upon the result, it was docidod to place Chinese crews on board of the Boomerang, Leichhardt, James Paterson, Tinonee, aud Yaralla. It was whou the company attempted to put this resolution into force that the men on board the whole of the company's steamers at present in port, apparently by proarrangement, struck. It appears that the customary rate of wages paid by the A.S.N. Co. to European firemen on the coast has been £8 per month. It nioy be mentioned that many of the opposition steamers coasting between Cooktown and Melbourne employ Chinesa firemen and deck hands. The E. and A. Mail Company were the first to introduce this description of labor on the coast, and since they have been running no Europeans have been employed. The commandors of these steamers are unanimous in favor of Chinese, over Europeans, particularly in regard to their fitness to bear tropical weather and tho heat of the stokehole. Their sobriety is another strong reason put forward in their favor, and they are stated to ba universally civil, and always ready for turning to whenever called upon. The pay given by the E. and A. Mail Company to firemen is £2 15s per month, and where they previously employed twelve Europeans, they have found it necessary to substitute sixteen Chinese. The steamship Adela, running between Newcastle aud Melbourne, has employed Chinese for somo time past, and Captain Saunderson, writing to his agents, Messrs. Cowlishawßros., states that lf the Chinese firemen have all shipped again, for which I am very glad, as we get so much bettor results from them, and I wonder that the large companies don't employ them . O urlast passage from Melbourne wharf to Newcastle wharf was only 62 hours, and the voyage before was sixty-three hours. We could never do this with English firemen." The steamship Coonanbara left the company's wharf at 11 o'clock lost night, having a crew of eleven firemen procured from the steamship Ocean, and besides these there were only three Europeans on board, namely, Captain Adams, hissecond officer, and second mate. The Victoria, whoso crew struck yesterday afternoon, and walked on shore in a body, procured a Chinese crew, and left for Cooktown at daylight this morning. The steamship Boomerang, for Rockbampton, was also deserted by her English crew, and could not take her departure at tho advertised time, but the company have made such arrangements as will enable her to leave to-day. The seamen on board tho Ly-ee-moon also struck this morning, though no attempt was made to put Chinese on board. The quiet appearance of affairs on the wharf to-day are in most unhappy comparison to the activity of yesterday. The entire body of wharf laborers, many of whom have been tor twenty years in the employ, have loft and joined tho union men. THE SBAMEN'S VIBW OP THE CASE. The men's view of the case is mainly that contained in the circular, which is being freely distributed to-day to the public. In this circular they urge that for some time past the AS.N. Company have been quietly superseding their European crews by Chinese crews, and that the importation of 100 Chinese sailors by tho s.s. Ocean from Hongkong is a direct proof of the company's intention to man tho whole of their vessels by Chinese, and this the men are determined to resist to the utmost. They therefore confidently appeal to their brother seamen to assist them in tho struggle, and call upon them to refuse to ship in any of the company's vessels. They state they are sacrificing themselves, not only for their own benefit, but for the bonefit of the seamen throughout tho colonies, as, if the A.S.N. company can successfully employ Chinese, their example will be followed by all other steam companies in Australia. They appoal to all seamen to refuse to ship in any boat where the men aro on strike, and this is to include all firemen, trimmers, deckhands, stewards, or cooks on board vessels which carry Chinese crows. A footnote to the circular requests wharf hands not to "ship by the run " in any of the boats on strike. The men to-day are exceedingly good-bumeured, and express no ill-will whatever against the A S.N. Company. All they insist is that Chinese shall no longer be employed with them. A large number of the men are not enrolled in the anti-Chinese Union, and those who do not belong to it aro being looked after with a view to get them to join at once. This means a subscription of one shilling per week per man to provide the necessary funds to continue the strike.