The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1922. THE SHIPPING DISPUTE.

Evening Star, Issue 18159, 27 December 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1922. THE SHIPPING DISPUTE.

The officials of the Seamen's Federation did not take the public into their confidence when the union men began to leave their boats early in November. The only explanation given was that the men would not work under the new award which came into operation that month. Now, however, Mr W. T. Young has broken .silence on behalf of the federation. His appeal is to the public. It is astutely made. Mr Young appears now to recognise the oft-repeated axiom that strikes not having the public sympathy behind them , are mostly doomed to failure. It is rather late to set out now to enlist the sympathy of a public after ignoring for weeks its claims to some knowledge of the merits of a dispute initiated by the men. The attempt to inhibit transport by sea to the community at about the busiest time of the year is a matter on which Air Young is discreetly silent. Ho is vociferous on one aspect of the business only—viz., the means, adopted to carry on shipping services. On this subject he seeks to be alarmist. Such ’ tactics are probably the best ho can adopt. He and his organisation have shown so far no concern for the public or its convenience, let alone its business interests. The hope actuating him appears to be that this past neglect will bo altogether overshadowed by the fervent anxiety now being expressed for the public safety. The seamen sought to override the. Arbitration Court and get their own terms by hanging up shipping. But shipping has" not been hung up, and the present outcry is another thinly-veiled attempt to hang it up. The idea is to play j.on the public’s nerves until that frame of mind is reached when public opinion shall become the federation’s tool and consent to wreak injury on itself. This is placing a very low estimate on the people’s intelligence. Furthermore, Mr Young has overshot the mark. Had he been content to end his challenging manifesto with his statement as to the extempore manning of ships necessitated by his organisation’s action he would have been better advised.

His intention was evidently to create the impression that he was actuated solely by a desire to' safeguard travellers by sea. But when his warnings form merely the stepping stone to a tirade against the " shipping’ octopus ” and the Reactionary Government acting hnnd-in-glovo together ho shows his hand altogether too plainly. Wo hold no brief for the combine of which Lord Inchcape is the moving spirit, nor for the Massey Government. All wo can say is that, as regards this particular dispute, the shipowners submitted their case to the Arbitration Court end were presumably prepared to abide by its decision, however it wont. As to the Government, it would have distinctly failed in its duty had it declined to lift a. finger in an effort to maintain some communication by sea. Mr Young speaks of the suspenlion of the shipping laws as though all precautions in respect of manning vessels had , been thrown to tho winds. That is not tho case. Many of tho men in the Union S.S. Company's shore establishments have been drafted to vessels, and it is the rule rather than the exception for these men to have been to sea prior to getting billets ashore. In an island dominion such as this, with sea ports as its big centres of population, a surprisingly largo proportion of its men have earned a livelihood at sea at some time or another. Consequently the Government shipping master in each port has tho material to draw on in an emergency. In this port wo know with certainty that ho insists inexorably on there being a certain percentage of qualified men in every crew signed on, and we have been assured that this percentage is not by any moans lower than might reasonably bo expected under the circumstances. Mr Young’s self-imposed period of silenco has been too much for him. Tho internal pressure became so great as to be unendurable, and the result is an eruption in which mud predominates.