BLACK OR WHITE LABOUR?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14359, 2 May 1910, Page 6

BLACK OR WHITE LABOUR?

THE P. /AND 0. SERVICE. The remarks made by Mr. E. Trelawny -(superintendent for the P. and 0. Company in Australasia) ; .: at Sydney last week on the subject of .coloured labour on the P. and 0. steamers, were replied to by Mr. J. ;iC:::Kneen, secretary of the Auckland . branch of the ', Seamen's Union, in the course of 'conversation with a 'Herald representative. "It is quite absurd/' said Mr. Kneen, " for the P. and O. superintendent to say that a .sufficient number of trustworthy British J hands cannot ,■■ be obtained to run the mail service through the tropics.^' : There' are no better men afloat," he added, "than the white stokers and, seamen, who are at present working on the Orient and .North German Lloyd's steamers, which are trading "along the same ocean routes as the P. and 0. Company, and ; they ?do not discard the white men for cheap coloured labour; '<■ Steamers trading fin the very - hottest climes," Mr. Kneen went on to : say,'•;" employed Europeans, : and he contended it > was ;■; well known that they were the most efficient workers obtainable, but in the case of the :P. and 0. Company, Lascars were substituted 'only 'because they were cheaper. The presence of Asiatic seamen on the P. and 0. boats, he thought, made their competition in the intercolonial trade most unfair. "If," he said, "all the shipping , companies : took up the same stand as the P, and 0. Company the only result would be 'thai/ white , workers afloat, would soon , '; faa:; crushed'-'out of employment." IS 'i -