WORKING THE SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 6

WORKING THE SHIPS

(To the Editor.)

• Sir,—ln tonight's "Post" Mr. A. P. O'Shea, Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, commenting on the decision of the British Government to restrict our export shipping space, says:, ". . . Though it must be r^oognised that the shipping losses were tha main factor influencing the British Governmenttthere could be no doubt that our unenviable record of slackness, strikes, and hold-ups must have been a contributing factor " Mr. O'Shea goes on to suggest that overseas vessels should be worked the clock round and that waterside workers should agree to work in the freezing chambers at a temperature below that now re- ; cognised as the limit. ', It is noteworthy that, of all those I asked to comment on the situation, Mr. I O'Shea was the only man to suggest i that the waterside workers were partly responsible for the limitation of our overseas shipping tonnage. Most people | will realise that the British Governi merit was influenced by the necessity, !in view of the extensive losses of ships, iof shortening the sea routes and re- | ducing the risk of further sinkings, to say nothing of the lives of the gallant I seamen who, every minute of the day and night, run the gauntlet of the surface raider and the submarine. Where I five navies were patrolling the seas iin the .Great War, the 'whole of the work today falls on the British Navy. Vessels trading between the Argentine and Great Britain are in a zone which can be more closely patrolled than the longer .routes. The next point is that the distance between the Argentine,and Great Britain is shorter by thousands of miles than the route between New Zealand and London; arid while it is true that a shift system of working our ships would facilitate the turn-round of vessels, it is obvious that no methods of loading and discharging, however efficient and speedy, could bridge the difference in time or distance. Those were the reasons, and the only reasons, for the decision of the British Government. Mr. O'Shea's statement, in so far as it applies to the waterside workers, is ill-timed, unwarranted, and, as usual'in similar accusations from his organisation,- absolutely unsupported by facts. ■ At a time like the present, when unity of effort from all concerned is :.o desirable, it is a pity that the Farmers' Union should deliberately go out of its way to attack the waterside workers who are working in full cooperation with the war effort at all hours of the day or night and on Saturday nights and Sundays in order *.o keep the ships moving.—l am, etc., J. O. JOHNSON, Secretary, N.Z. Waterside Workers' " Union, Wellington Branch.