THE SEAMEN S STRIKE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 154, 16 June 1911, Page 1

THE SEAMEN S STRIKE.

THE STRIKERS’ DEMANDS. [press association. —COPYRIGHT]. London, June 15. I Mr. Havelock Wilson addressed j 6000 seamen in the East End, Lon- , don. Resolutions in favour of a strike were enthusiastically carried, j A strike has similarly been pro-1 claimed at Bristol, Hull, Sunder-! land, Manchester, Cardiff and Shields. The strikers are demanding the establishment of a conciliation board, and a minimum wage for sailors and firemen of £5/10/’- a month on cargo boats, also overtime at 9d an hour until midnight and 1/ -an hour until 6 a.m. COAL PORTERS ACCEPT TERMS. (Received 16, 9.4 5a.m.) London, June 15. The coal porters at Southampton have accepted employers* terms. SETTLEMENT WITH WHITE STAR LINE. The seamen’s union has arrived at a settlement with the White Star Co. SOME DAYS BEFORE STRIKE REACHES ITS MAXIMUM. The strikers demands have been paid on the steamer Olympic, but the owners are laying up the steamer Majestic. Liverpool shipowners have consented to negotiate with the men’s representatives. . . The Shipping Federation has stationed the liner sphero in Hull roads as a depot for the supply of men required. It is expected it will be some days before the strike reaches its maximum, ds the men have been ordered to fulfil outstanding engagements. STRIKE SUPPORTED BY LOAFERS. CHINESE CREWS SIGNING ON. Shipowners state that they anticipate merely a slight inconvenience for a few days as they are convinced respectable seafarers will keep aloof from the movement, because it is largely supported by loafers and others rarely going to sea. There is no particular enthusiasm in London, where Chinese crews are signing on under police protection. NOT TO APPLY TO AUSTRALASIA. “This is not a thing of the moment. It is a thing that has been , thought out for years,” said a gentleman closely identified with the seafaring interests to a “Star” representative to-day. “The causes leading up to it,” he continued, “are the starvation conditions existing aboard British ships, the rotten accommodation provided for the men. On top of all that, the slavish conditions imposed on the men by the Shipping Federation of Great Britain. These conditions, of which the principal is the branding of seamen like cattle (the placing of a stamp in indelible ink on the back of the hand or wrist, to show that he is physically fit); and yet, having branded him the same as a cow, they deny him the living spoil that the law compels them to give that animal.” CAUSES OF THE STRIKE. “The Shipping Federation have declared.” continued our informant, “that they will give no advance of wages to the seamen unless they can force it. They have also declared that they will not agree to a manning scale to ease the work of the ‘slaves’ of the stokehold, galley, and deck, nor yet will they consent, to the abolition or modification of the degrading medical examination. THE CASE OF THE ANTIPODES. The present strike can in no way affect New Zealand or Australia. The seamen’s unions of both countries being, registered under the arbitration laws of their respective counrib's. they cannot participate in an international strike of seamen. The strike will affect practically all British possessions, Can-

ada included, and Australasia appears to be the only part that is exempt. A GREAT FIGHT. “The coming fitrlit will be the greatest in the history of the Seamen’s Union, and to further forward the battle, ever since June, 1910, the members of the Seamen’s Union in Great Britain have been contributing £1 per month per man. When one considers that the organisation has a membership of 150.000, it can readily be seen that the fighting fund must be necessarily large.” Mr .Havelock Wilson, secretary of the International Seamen’s Union, recently announced that at a given date the International Seamen’s Union, recently practically paralyse the maritime business of the world by a simultaneous strike, the object being to secure better wages, improved accommodation, and better conditions all round. Shipping men in Britain and the Continent have not been seriously perturbed at the announcement, believing that the movement would never get beyond the talking st?are. Mr. Wilson has had several conferences on the .‘outinent with I».(• heads of the International Union, and after one of those he hinted at a strike on the eve of the Coronation.