The Gisborne Times PUBUSHED DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1919.

Gisborne Times, Volume L, Issue 5071, 14 January 1919, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBUSHED DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1919.

It is to be hoped that a settlement in connection with the shipping trouble in Australia is now close at hand. The whole business has been most regrettable and has led to a great deal of inconvenience and dislocation of traffic. As is well known it arose at the time when the influenza epidemic was at its height in this Dominion. Originally “ the men pleaded that it was unfair to ask them as individuals to take the risk of contracting the disease in the course of working infected ports. In view of the alarming reports that were current in Australia as to the state of affairs then obtaining in this Dominion many people must have agreed with the men’s demand that they should be safeguarded from a financial point of view. But as the .trouble progressed it soon became evident that the men were merely using the influenza scare as a pretext \to advance other aiid much more far-reaching demands. That that was the case became plain when the men continued to maintain their stand long after this Dominion had been given a clehn bill of health. If at that time the men had simply asked that they should be insured to cover the risk of becoming victims of the scourge not much criticism would have been levelled against the demand, even although it was so unusual seeing that employees of private firms in infected areas had been content to accept the risk themselves. The plea for an extra pound a day in addition deprived the men of widespread sympathy in connection with their attitude. When the whole matter came to be investigated it appeared that there was not even. room for sympathy in the case of the demand for special insurance. The facts are that the demand when subjected to close scrutiny amounted to a- claim not for £SOO in the event of death arising from influenza but against the possibility of contracting the disease. Thus the object of the men’s demand was not to make provision for their. dependants if they should die of the disease hut to extort exorbitant compensation should any-of them have the misfortune to be lli for a few days or weeks as the ease might be! As showing how weak was the men’s position it may be pointed out that later on the cooks, waiters, Stewards, etc., put forward a demand that if the firemen and seamen got the extra‘one pound per day they would require a similar concession as they considered that they ran even greater risk of contracting the disease. When the whole matter was brought down to bedrock evidence was not wanting that what was at the bottom of the

trouble was dissatisfaction with the wages fixed in the recent award and complaint that certain promises made to seamen of" the mercantile marine in 1918 regarding war bonuses and compensation had not been fulfilled. It is understood that the companies have agreed to make some concessions, but so far the dispute has not yet been settled.