STEAMSHIP WAIMANA

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 9, 10 January 1920, Page 5

STEAMSHIP WAIMANA

SHIPPING CONTROLLER'S STATE-

MENT

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

. : LONDON, 20th November.. In justice to the owners of the steamship Waimana, and to allay any misapprehension , which may arise in the minds of families who ars to, travel by this vessel, the Shipping Controller states that he- is satisfied that the ship is in every way a suitable third-class family ship. _ The Controller understands that the difficulty experienced with the Australian sergeants and their families, who were originally embarked in the Waimana and subsequently withdrawn, arose mainly from the f,act that the families, had been allowed to expect second-class accommodation on payment out of their own pockets of the difference between third and second-class fares. Through ay; _ unfortunate misapprehension, for which the Ministry of Shipping was not responsible, the passengers were not told that the Watmana was prepared as a third-class family ship, and the difference between third and second-class fares had been collected from them in error.

The Waimana has since been carefully inspected twice, and, the military medical authorities having satisfied^ themselves, that the ship is in every way satisfactory/ will be used for the conveyance of Imperial military families to India. It is hoped by the use of this and three other family ships in November to get nearly all military wives"and families now ready out to India in time to enable them to spend Christmas with their soldier husbands.

Meanwhile, the Australian n.c.o's, with their wives, have' been brought back to London to await another ship, and have been installed in comfortable lodging with pay increased to £1 a day.r