CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1940, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE

"SLOW LOADING?"

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Under the heading "Slow Loading" in tonight's "Post," reference is imade to a discussion in the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last night when Captain S. Holm, dealing with the allegedly slow rate of cargo handling, made a statement which calls for further elucidation: Captain S. Holm commented that a walk on the waterfront might supply the information, and Mr. P. E. Pattrick asked if it was a case of i "can't or won't." "I think they have j got to the stage where they can't," Captain Holm replied. That statement should be substantiated or withdrawn. I read the report of the incident with surprise because I am of the opinion that really good work is being done by the local waterside workers. I am in close touch continually with the representatives of the ship owners and the Waterfront Control Commission, and have been assured that, generally speaking, the quantity and the quality of the work is highly satisfactory. If Captain Holm's statement is correct it is only fair to ask him why no complaint has been made to, the organisation which has recently been set up on the waterfront to deal with just such matters. 1£ Captain Holm has been correctly reported I need not remind him that his remarks will be interpreted by our members as a gratuitous insult. . We hear a great deal about the need for co-operation in the war effort and all that sort of thing, and one is entitled to expect from members of the Chamber of Commerce something more helpful than cheap sneers at the waterside workers. —I am, etc., J. O. JOHNSON, Secretary, Waterside Workers' Union.