SHIPS AND CREWS.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 795, 24 September 1915, Page 6

SHIPS AND CREWS.

A Determined Minister.

| F the "Red Fed J ' leaders are, as it § is rumoured they are, endeavouring to cause trouble in the coal mines and on the wharves, they can make up their minds that, so far, at least as the. shipping trade of the Dominion may be concerned, the new Minister of Marine, Dr. McNab, will determinedly stand by the producers, and see that their merchandise is got away as expeditiously as possible. At the shipping "smoker" last Saturday, Dr. MoiNab defined bis duty to the public. Owing to so many men having gone to the front, it may be found difficult to get crews. But, said the Minister, "if a vessel was hung up by inability to secure the full, crew, he would send her to sea with what crew he could get, provided it was safe to do so." If this has any meaning at all, it means that, if sufficient unionist labour is not forthcoming, then outside assistance will be resorted to. And the very idea of this, we know, is anathema to the "Red Fed" leaders.

Some ugly rumours of forthcoming labour troubles in Australia have recently, we are told, reached Wellington, and there is, we are assured, some danger of the Dominion being involved in a big industrial upheaval. We sincerely trust that the report is a mere canard, but if there be anything in it, it is good to know that in, Dr. McNab the country has a Minister of Marine who, while rightly protecting the safety of the travelling public, will emphatically stand no nonsense in the way of blocking the! due despatch of vessels and cargoes.