DETERMINED FEELING ON BOTH SIDES.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 141, 11 December 1902, Page 5

DETERMINED FEELING ON BOTH SIDES.

A STKIKE APPARENTLY IMMINENT. (Received December 11, 10.29 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Both sides express determination not to retreat from the position taken up. The seamen's delegates, on being , interviewed, stated that the attitude^ they took at the conference was that in face of the large dividends paid during the past twelve months, no warrant existed for the proposed enormous reduction in wages, equivalent to 15 per cent. Ihoy urged that the New Zealand arbitration award given since the last conference was preferable to the agreement under which seamen worked in Australia. The New Zealand conditions would be accepted by the Australian Union; they were a fair compromise, which shipowners might also have accepted. On these lines there would have been a reduction of 10s a, month, although slight alterations in hours and other particulars would have resulted. The delegates say the men are in •no way to blame for the present position. They argued that the June agreement, under which they undertook to accept a reduction if trade did not improve, did not hold good, because trade had undoubtedly improved. As to the question of foreign conipetition, they contend that it no longer existed. In support of this they stated that a vessel which previously sailed under a foreign flag is now trading under the British flag with a, British crew who are paid Australian rates. They also declared that up to the present there were no signs of competition by the transport vessels released at the termination of the war. They are determined to fight for the men's rights at all costs. There are altogether some 2000 seamen engaged in the inter-State trade. A representative of Aie owners says they intend to sign men on at a reduced rate of pay. Unless there was an . unprecedented improvement in business, which was most improbable, the owners were unable tc accept any compromise.