SEAMEN IN CAPTIVITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16909, 23 July 1918, Page 4

SEAMEN IN CAPTIVITY.

PROVISION FOR DEPENDANTS. MATUNGA AND WAIRUNA CREWS. Distressing accounts are given in letters received in Auckland of the sufferings which the crew of the Matunga, the BurnsPliilp steamer, which was captured by the raider Wolf, some twelve months ago, are enduring in the German internment camps. It is shown that both officers and men are without boots, and have only the remnants of the clothing in which they were captured. Apparently, also, their food is very restricted. The officers and crew of the Union Company's steamer Wairuna, 1 another captured vessel, are also prisoners of war in Germany, but are evidently faring better than their Australian comrades. The writer of one of the letters states that the Wairuna men are regularly in receipt of pairels sent by the Union Company, but that, he and tho other unfortunates from the Matunga havo not received any assistance, either from Burns, Philp and Company, or the Australian Government. Tho position of the dependants of the two crews is also pathetic. During the months in which there was uncertainty as to the fate of tho vessels, they received no regular monetary allowance from the shipping companies, whose liability for the payment of wages legally ceases with the loss of tho ship, which was presumed from the fact of her disappearance, and would become liable for compensation only ii» case an officer or member of the crew was killed or physically injured while on duty. It is stated that tho total allowance made by Burns, Philn and Company to the wife and four children of one of the Matunga's officers is £2 17s 3d a week, and from the sum coming to them there is to bo deducted an advance made as a kind of charitable contribution while the fate of the ship was unknown. This allowance was not commenced until six months after the capture of tho steamer. A suggestion was made yesterday by an Auckland gentleman, who has shown interest in tho sufferings of the crews and their dependants, that provision should bo made by law for the relief of both classes. The shipping companies and shippers of produce, he pointed out, were making large profits out of maritime traffic in the war period, and it was but fair that they should bo called upon to contribute towards provision for the men who undertake the personal risks of carrying on their business. His suggestion, therefore, was that a tax should be levied upon tho shipowners and the shippers on the basis of the charges for freight, and that the insurance companies should be required to contribute an amount equal to that levied upon the shipowner. If, then, the Government were to iwpplcment on a similar scale the amount raised from any one of these classes a fund would be created from which all the sufferers from war disaster to mercantile vessels could be materially relieved.