SEAMEN'S GRIEVANCES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 10

SEAMEN'S GRIEVANCES.

In appointing n. committee to investigate tho conditions under which seamen in merchant vessels are quartered, the President of tho Board of Trade is dealing with only one of many grievances. Mr Burns can scarcely bo in doubt on tho need for reform. In all tho accounts of new vessels one reads of tho splendid apartments provided for tho passengers, of tho swimming baths and tho lounges and drawingrooms, all furnished in tho most luxurious fashion, but somehow it is never considered necessary to say how the workers are housed. As a matter of fact the law shows greater consideration for the passenger, who may be at sea only a few hours, than it does for the seaman who has to make tho ship his home, although the shipping companies have every incentive to treat the passengers well and every incentive to stow the sailors in out-of-the-way corners. Too often the sailors' quarters are in close proximity to paint lockers, store-rooms and other places where smells accumulate. That is where the cockroaches and other noxious pests love to congregate, and as a general rule it may be taken for granted that the seamen are likely to be quartered in the least pleasant part of the ship. In tramp steamers, too, it often happens that access to the store-rooms is obtained only through these quarters, so that the watch below has not infrequently to snatch its sleep, while heavy gear is being dragged about. But the housing question, as wo have said, is only one of many grievances. A few weeks ago the whole subject was discussed in a weighty magazine article by a writer who obviously had first hand information concerning sea conditions. Unfortunately his argument was vitiated to some extent by the persistent assertion that British seamen were returning to the land and that foreigners v were taking their places to an extent that would shortly alarm the nation. The figures do not bear out the allegation. It is true that there was a steady decline during the last decade of tho nineteenth century, but since 1901 there has been a regular increase in the number of British seamen, thero being 208,635 British persons employed in the mercantile marine in 1912, as against 30,960 Asiatics and 47,211 foreigners. It is admitted that wages Have risen and the quality of the food supplied has improved in recent years, but generallv speaking it is argued that the conditions of life at sea are attractive only to men who cannot get remunerative work ashore. There are no labour inspectors to watch the interests of the men, no holidays como the way of the seaman, and Sunday is not, to him, a day for either rest or worship. It is something to the credit of New Zealand, by the way, that tho conditions in the Australasian service are said to be "incomparably better" than they are at Home, and one Labour journal inquires why Groat Britain cannot follow tho lead of Australia and New Zealand in "treating seamen as human beings." Why no£, indeed?