SEAMEN'S DISCHARGES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 62, 10 September 1921, Page 5

SEAMEN'S DISCHARGES

QUESTION OF CHARACTER

WORK OF THE INSPECTORS.

Members of the executive council of the Seamen's Union waited upon; the Minister of Marine (Sir Francis Bell) today, to place before him the wishes of members in regard to the form of discharge and the duties of .seamen's inspectors \

Mr. W. T. Young, secretary of the union, explained that the executive, council wished that portion of the certificate of discharge of a seaman which incorporated the report on character should be deleted altogether. The; placing of this report on the discharge Ws not in. conformity with the law. The council liad secured the -opinion of Mr. H. F. O'Leary, of Messrs. Bell, Gully, Myers, and O'Leary, who had stated that "he did not see, in section 56 or any' other provision of the Act, any authority for making on the discharge a report as to character. All that the discharge should contain was the rating, period of service, and time and place of discharge of ,the seaman concerned. A report as to character was, according to*the Act, a separate document altogether but, should the seaman require the certificate to contain details as to character, he could ask for his certificate to be so endorsed. Mr. Young said the present discharges were used largely fdr the purposes of a victimisation against which a season had no legal remedy. Incidentally, he said that the system really placed in" the hands of masters the decision as to whether licenses of aliens to serve on ships should be renewed, for the police were influenced in the • issuing of the licenses by .the reports as to character placed on the discharges. - ' j The other matter touched on by the deputation was the question of the seamen's inspectors appointed in 1917, under the amending Act of 1913. These inspectors, among other things, were to keep a register of persons desiring to be entered as ssamen or apprentices, and to supply seamen and apprentices required by ships. They were never asked for by the seamen, and were not wanted, for it was contended that all seamen should obtain employment direct on bWrd the ships.from the men under whom they were to work. By doing away with the two inspectors now in office, the Government would save over £1000 a year, and give satisfaction to the seamen and the ships' officers. These Government offi■eers, said Mr. Young, had really developed into- "runners" for the shipping companies. If the Government could not see its way to do away with the inspectors altogether, the union asked that their work should be confined to the four walls of their offices—that was, to the keeping .of a register,l the . man whose name was at the head of which should be 'first offered any work available.

Sir Francis Bell replied that both matters, which ho said had been put before him most clearly, would be carefully considered.