AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 December 1935, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN

UNIONS’ PEACE EFFORT MORE SHIPS MANNED [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] SYDNEY, December 12. The only development in the strike position to-day was the arrival in Sydney from Melbourne of Messrs C. Crofts and A. Monk, officials of the Australian'.Trades Union Council, to confer with-dhe local Trades Hall delegates, with the object of trying to find a basis for peace in the :.hip ping industry for submission to the Strike Control,, Committee. It is also reported that steps will probably be taken "to test the validity , of tlie regulations applying the licens- V ing provision of the Transport Workers’ Act to seamen. ' . . An attempt is being made to hold up the Union Company’s Wairuna, which is scheduled to sail from Sydney to-morrow for San Francisco. A fireman, is reported missing, and the Seaman’s Union is not allowing any member to fill'.the’vacancy. * Th© Wairuna may be the first oversea vessel to become involved. At Brisbane volunteer crews have been provided for five freighters. LATER. The conference between Australian Trades’ Union and Council officials with the local delegates, also the Strike Committee of seamen, reached no decision to-night, and is continu- , ing the talks to-morrow. The shipowners estimate that five hundred strikers have already permanently lost their former employment as the result of the licensing system. The Sydney Manager of the Union Company, Mr. Sou tar, says he has no knowledge of any trouble on the Wairuna. Probably the Communist element is circulating mischievous rumours.

AT MELBOURNE. (Received December 13, 8 a.m.) MELBOURNE, December, 13. Abbut four hundred licenses were issued to seamen, firemen and others to-day. Three cargo vessels, Kooinda, Kowhai and Goulburn, are ready to sail to inter-State ports, with volunteer licensed crews. ,