APPEAL TO UNIONISTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 51, 28 August 1925, Page 7

APPEAL TO UNIONISTS

"WALSH'S AND JOHANNSEN'S BUNKUM" THE PERIL OP FOREIGN LOW WAGES. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPIKIGHT.) (PUBLISHED IN THE TIHKS.) LONDON, 26th August. Mr. Havelock Wilson, from aboard the ■ Empress of Scotland, in mid-At-lantic, lias sent a, wireless message to "The -Times," directed to trade ■unionists in Australia. He says: "Fellow trade unionists, the action o£ Walsh and Johaniisen in promoting trouble on British ships in Australian ports is a non-unionist niovo, the object being to promote Communistic principles. They are anxious to destroy trade unionism. "Walsh is foolish enough to believe it possible to establish something near the Australian wages in the United Kingdom ports. This would be possible but for the low wages paid in foreign Bhips coining to British ports. It is strange that Walsh and company do not try this game on foreign ships which are operating on 50 pel" cent, lower wages than British ships. Whilst hundreds of our ships are idle, foreign ships are carrying 60 per cent. of our cargoes. "I trust Australian trade unionists will advise British seamen not to be misled by Walsh's and Johannsen's bunkum. Non-unionists, assisted by Communists in England, are. tho people who are making the trouble.. They are not fighting for better wages. Their policy is to get union men out of the ships, so as to obtain the .union men's places at any wages. I have dealt with such men for nearly forty years. I know their ways and -cannot be deceived. "Trade unionists have only to remember that over fifty thousand union men have accepted the new rates. They see two foreign, vessels loading in our | ports every day for every British ship, and hundreds of up-Wdate British ships are idle. . Thousands of British officers and men are unemployed. It appears ] to me as though Walsh and company want to destroy British shipping. Who will care for our British seamen if Walsh and company accomplish their object?"