SEAMEN IN CAPTIVITY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10057, 23 August 1918, Page 2

SEAMEN IN CAPTIVITY

mo VISION ' FOE' ’DDPEXDEIS’TS

Distressing accounts are given in letters received in .Auckland of the sufferings which ' the crew of the Matunga, the Bums-Pliiip' steamer,- which was captured by tne - raider Woib, some twelve months, ago,, are enduring in the German internment camps. It is shown that both 0 .pflicers arid.'’men are without (boots, an'c? "have’ o&ly' the remnants of the clothing in which they were captured. Apparently, also, their food is very restricted. They speak, for. instance, of carrots and turnips as being almost the main item, of .their diet. The officers and crow of the Union Company’s steamer Wairuna, another captured vessel, are also prisoners of war in Germany, l bub -axe' evidently faring better than their Australian comrades. The writer of one, of the letters states that the Wairuna men are regularly in receipt of .parcels sent by the Union Company, but that he and the other unfortunates from the Matunga have not received any assistance, either from (Burns. Philp and Company, or the Australian Government. • The position of the dependents of the two crews is. also-.pathetic.,, . During .ijie months in which, thorp.,was uncertainty as to the fafe of ‘the vessels, they received no rbgular monetary allowance from the shipping companies, whose liability for o tlie' payment of wages legally ceases with the- loss of the ship, widen was presumed from the fact of her disappearance, and would become liable for compensation only in. case an officer or member of the crew was killed or physically inj ured while on duty. It is stated that the total allowance made by Burns, Philp and Company to the wife and four' children of one of the Matunga's officers is JH 'l7s 3d a week, and from the sum coming -to them‘ there, is to be 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 the steamer. Decently the - company - was asked to keep the officer’s life insurance going, the' payment required being |7 2s Id per naif-year.' " This it declined to do unless the wife,, agreed to the money being deducted' from r ‘certain back' pay. A suggestion has been made by an Auckland gentleman, who has shown interest in the sufferings of the crews and

their dependents, that provision should be made by law for the relief of both classes. The shipping companies and shippers o£ produce,- he pointed out wer6' making large profits out of maritime traffic in the war period, and it was but fair that they should be called upon to contribute towards provision for the men who undei’take the personal risks of carrying on their business. His suggestion, therefore, was that a tax should, be levied upon the shipowners and the shippers on the basis of the charges Sea freight, and that., the insurance companies should be required to contribute an amount equal to that levied upon the shipowner. If, then, the Govern, ment were to supplement on a similar scale the amount raised from any on« of these classes a fund would be created from which all the sufferers from war disaster to mercantile vessels could hi materially -relieved.