STRIKE AT HAWAII

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 12

STRIKE AT HAWAII

UNUSUAL PROCEDURE

BOARDING THE MONTEREY

GAS AND GUNS

When the shipping strike broke out on the Pacific Coast of America in January there were aspects of the dislocation of the shipping services that were never recorded in New Zealand. In a letter to her mother at Eastbourne a young woman recounts in vivid fashion the hold-up as it affected Honolulu, and the amazing complications that arose when a number of passengers wished to board the Matson liner Monterey, north-bound from Australia and New Zealand to Los Angeles and San Francisco. The presence of police with tear gas and machine-guns was necessary to keep the strikers from interfering with the passengers wishing to board the- liner for America.

"At first we were told the Monterey was going straight on to the States without stopping at Honolulu," said the letter. "However, three days before she was due the shipping office called us and told us that they were going to attempt to take on 500 passengers. The Monterey was to be anchored three miles out to sea, because if they I had attempted to bring her into the dock the crew would have walked off. Within the three-mile limit she wouldbe technically in dock, and she would also be if they dropped anchor, so they had to just stop the ship and let her drift. We were told to be at the pier at 10 a.m., and we were to be taken out to the Monterey on a pineapple barge. The strikers in Honolulu of the Lurline and some of the President Pierce boats had made all sorts of threats to stop us from getting on the barge, because it greatly strengthened their ' position to have over six hundred passengers stranded in Hawaii. POLICE PROTECTION. "When the passengers arrived at the dock they were all directed to one of the piers, which are like huge storehouses. There were a whole crowd of police with machine-guns and teargas bombs guarding the gates, and only passengers were allowed inside. Our friends had to say good-bye to us outside on the street. ... I said good-bye to them (some friends) at 10 o'clock and went into the pier, and believe it. or not, the passengers waited there from 10 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. before they got away! "The barge was there all ready to take us at 10 o'clock and there was the Monterey drifting in the distance like a great white bird. But the wind came up and the harbour got very choppy, and they were afraid to risk taking us out.. However, about 11 the barge left to see how things were, and to take ashore about 50 passengers who were disembarking at Honolulu. (The poor people from the Antipodes who were through passengers never did get ashore to see Honolulu). The Matson Company sent, out leis for the passengers on board, which was a very nice gesture. The barge had a very perilous journey over, it, was very rough, and when they tried to get alongside the Monterey it bashed into her and did quite a little damage. They decided it was too rough to take.the passengers off, so back came the barge. At about 12.30 the Matson Company sent down piles of sandwiches and cookies and gallons of coffee and milk, as there were no indications when we would get away. "'The passengers were free to leave the wharf, showing their tickets every time in case any strikers got mixed up with them and caused trouble. It was arranged that the siren on the Aloha Tower was to blow twenty minutes before the barge was ready to leave. At 2.30 p.m. the company decided that it was calm enough to take the luggage out, so they loaded up.the barge, and away she went. The passengers on shore watched, and saw her get right alongside the Monterey, then they both drifted out of sight, and that was the last that was seen of them until 9 o'clock at night. "We called up the pier at 7.30, but still there was no news of the barge coming back. The company spent several hundred dollars radioing the Monterey—they radioed about'every fifteen minutes. SIT-DOWN STRIKE. "We learned later that the crew on the Monterey were on a sit-down strike, and wouldn't unload the lugigage because it had been brought out on the barge by non-union men. The Monterey couldn't anchor, so they drifted back and forth a few miles each way—they drifted past Diamond Head once. However, they eventually came to some agreei»snt and the barge came back with the disembarking passengers at 9 p.m., and.by 9.30 the five hundred of us were on the barge and ready to go. By this time a lot of the passengers were drunk and very hilarious, and we had to have about a dozen police to see that no one fell overboard. We were warned not to go to the side of the barge in big crowds as she might tip up, so the police kept everyone in the middle. I forgot to tell you that the Royal Hawaiian Band played-in that pier from 10 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. They must have been hoarse for a- week. They were scheduled to come out on the barge with us, but of course toy that time they were dropping with exhaustion. We were guarded on the way over by a couple of Navy cutters, one. on each side of us, and they stood by while we got on board. The strikers didn't have a show of getting near us. It was a very thrilling and unusual ride over, and the Monterey looked gorgeous with every porthole lit and th> floodlights on the funnels. The passengers were leaning over the rails and cheering us as we got on board. They took dozens of flash-light pictures, and a movie of various scenes. . . . We made maritime history that day. Never has such a thing occurred before; pictures were in every newspaper in the States. The Royal Hawaiian Band was simply wonderful, they did so much towards keeping the passengers amused and entertained on that interminable wait. They had several relays of hula girls during the day who did dozens of hulas and sang dozens of songs. , ;

"The Monterey was scheduled, to go to Los Angeles, and then to 'Frisco. However, owing to the strike wo went straight to 'Frisco as the crew would have walked off if we'd docked in Los Angeles.. The company wanted her tied up in 'Frisco, as the Mariposa is tied up in the Los Angeles harbour and the Lurline in Honolulu. I forgot to tell you that the reason they anchored her three miles out is because if she were outside the three-mile limit the crew could not desert, because that would be mutiny on the high seas, and they would be liable to a heavy gaol sentence as soon as they landed. If the Monterey had anchored nearer, the strikers could have chartered a boat and got the crew off, and it would have been legal."