WATERSIDE DICTATORS

Evening Star, Issue 25730, 1 March 1946, Page 5

WATERSIDE DICTATORS

ANYTHING DUTCH IS SUSPECT STORE TROUBLE AT SYDNEY (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent.) tßec 8 a.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 28. The logical outcome of the Government's passive attitude over the refusal of waterside workers to permit Dutch ships to sail to the Netherlands East Indies has been reached. Now apparently any Dutch ship which shows its nose in an Australian harbour is open to suspicion. The sight of a Dutchman on the waterfront seems to cause the loyal Australian waterside worker literally to see red. The latest developments amply prove this. The steamer Straat arrived, under orders to load flour consigned to the British Food Controller at Colombo. When the militant waterside workers, queried this, the captain was obliging enough to show them his charter party. With a knowledge of maritime law equalled only by their knowledge of State affairs of the Netherlands East Indies, five gangs walked off the ship. A former hospital ship Tasman put in for stores only, having already loaded relief cargo for the Indies in New Zealand, but her name and destination were good enough for waterside diplomats. Were it not for the efforts of ! shipping clerk volunteers, this ship would be cluttering up the waterfront like her five sisters, who have lain here since September. Dockyard workers who refused to work on an Australian-built corvette at Garden Island did so because they refused to have the blood of Indonesians on their hands. It transpires that this ship, one of four sold by the Australian Navy, is actually still in the hands of the Royal Navy. The fact that it will eventually pass into thp hands of the Dutch navy *was supposed to be a secret, but the dockyard workers were not fooled.

The experiences of the past six months should have taught the Dutch shipmasters a lesson that if, they are to keep at sea and carry cargoes, they must give Australia a wide berth. This may result to New Zealand's gain, par-

ticularly if she has markets to exploit in the East. It will certainly be to Australia's loss, for before the war 40 per cent, of her trade to Malaya and Singapore and 25 per cent, of her trade to China was carried in Dutch ships. Australian manufacturers wish they had some say in the suicide pact to which they are a party.