MERCHANT SEAMEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 25 June 1943, Page 4

MERCHANT SEAMEN

HIGHEST PRAISE DESERVED TRIBUTE PAID IN HOUSE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) | Wellington, This Day. \ "When, the roll of honour of this war comes to be written, men of the Merchant Marine should occupy No. 1 place on the roll of non- j combatant**," said Mr A. F. Moncur Govt., Rotorua), in his Budget j speech in the House of Represen- j tatlves yesterday, when paying tri- ' bute to the services of men of the Merchant Marine. "We complain about certain things," he said. "For instance, some people complain about the 15 per cent, of wool price, but how many of us think of how that wool gets to Britain and of the trials and tribulations of the merchant seamen who do the job? When I was overseas (Mr Moncur was with an aerodrome construction unit in Malaya.) I watched the working of those men with pride. They never grumbled or complained. They were not armed and worked in the bowels of ships and at any moment \vere likely to be blown up by torpedoes, but they carried on and did a wonderful job.” About 650 of the sons of merchant seamen in the last war were taken in by Flock House, and 450 of those boys had gone back to the present war. added Mr Moncur. The Government should see that sons of merchant seamen in this war should be as well treated as sons of seamen in the last war. Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Nat., Waitomo): Flock House is not doing that job today. Why not make it go hack to its original job? Mr Moncur replied that the best that could be done for merchant seamen and their sons should be done.