ENGLISH SEAMEN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 July 1925, Page 5

ENGLISH SEAMEN.

A STRIKELESS DECADE

MASTERS AND MEN CELEBRATE

, V CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPY RIGHT

LONDON, July 24

Australians, who are suffering from the shipping strike and the chronic uncertainty of marine transport, will probably read with open-mouthed amazement of the contrast in London, where the shipowners and the seamen’s and firemen’s union shared the expense of a dinner to celebrate a strikeless decade. . . Four hundred were present, moulding members of the House of Lords, of the House of Commons, shipowners, shipmasters, seamen and firemen, with their wives and daughters. The trade union leaders were conspicuous by their absence, with the exception of Messrs Frank Hodges and Ben Tillett. Jhe owners and seamen toasted each other in champagne. Mr. Alan Henderson pointed out that the shipowners and the seamen had held eight conferences instead ol eight strikes during the past eight years, with the' result that British seamen’s wages were double those of every Continental country, representing an increase of 70 per cent, over the rates ruling in 1914. Mr. Havefock V ilson challenged seamen in any part of the Empire where strikes had preceded conciliation to show better results.