THE SEAMEN

Grey River Argus, 28 July 1925, Page 3

THE SEAMEN

UNION OFF TO RUN TASMANIAN SERVICE.

MELBOURNE, July 26.

The only change in the shipping position is that Walsh, o.i behalf of the Seamen’s Union has offered Mr Bruce to work ships in the Tasnta.iian trade if th e Government will put them into commission. THE COMMONWEALTH. LINE. Although the Commonwealth State Line has now been the first to concede the Seamen’s demand for a guaranteed clause, the case was different a little while ago. The seamen’s journal recently demanded an investigatic.i into what it calls ‘"the sacrifice of the Commonwealth Line” to the private Capitalists. The paper draws attention to the declaration of the Australian Prime Minister that 21 out of the 32 ships in the Commonwealth Line are ‘‘unsuit

able” and cannot be employed at a profit.

If that be so, indignantly declares the Seamen’s Journal, why should the Seamen be lampooned and abused in every Sapitalist paper as being the cause of the failure of the Commonwealth Line? And ‘‘lt must be borne in mind that the twenty-one ships now considered unsuitable were acquired for the Commonwealth line, when the present i hairman of the Shipping Beard, who is responsible for the report, was himself, sole manager of the concern.”

Apparently there is good ground fthe searching investigation which the Seamen demand.