THE MERCANTILE MARINE

NZ Truth, Issue 692, 21 September 1918, Page 6

THE MERCANTILE MARINE

• " " — : — ♦ Sorry Plight of Sea-stricken Sailors A PINCH FROM THE PROFITEERS' PROFITS. Wanted: A Warm War Regulation. The Merchant Service Guild has got busy at last with the question of compensation for men who man the ships and suffer through enemy action. At a meeting held on Monday last the Guild carried the following resolution: That, owing to the present war risk, the Merchant Service Guild demands that all ships' articles be endorsed before October 1, with the conditions of the Imperial compensation scheme, and that companies be held responsible for the dependents m the interval of time occupied m fixing up the business after an accident. The necessity for the resolution passed by the Merchant Service Guild has been brought prominently under our notice by the case of the wife of the flrst officer of the Bteamer Matunga, which was CAPTURED BY THE RAIDER, WOLF, . . and the crew of which vessel are at present held captive m Gferman hands. This lady is a worthy helpmate of a responsible ofllcer, and, having temporarily lost the companionship of her husband, she set herself busy to see that she and her four children are not left entirely destitute on account of his capture and Imprisonment. She has sat upon political doorsteps m both Australia and New Zealand with untiring energy, she has knocked at official doors unceasingly, she has been passed from pillar to post by departments, who say that it is somebody else's business to attend to her requirements; she has been told by high heads of legal standing that she really ought to get adequate compensation for the disaster that has fallen upon her, and that she assuredly will 'do bo when the law is amended to make the necessary provision for her upkeep and the care of her children. But this does not pay the butcher's bill nor satisfy the clamoring of the grocer and the baker and so far all she has succeeded ir getting is a miserable allowance of £J 17s 3d from the Australian Government, through Messrs Burns, Philp and Co., paid weekly, and £4 10s a montl from the New Zealand Pensions Department. She has, of course, ir addition the sincerest condolences ol the company and the sympathy oi every department to which she has applied for further adequate assistance to maintain herself and her foui children. However, v_ HER LAST REVERSE was the refusal of Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co. to pay the half -yearly premium of £7 2s ld due on her ihusband's life insurance. The refusal wai based upon principle and the threadbare excuse of creating a "bad precedent," but this generous firm was quite prepared to pay the amount if thej were allowed to deduct it from the "weakly" allowance of £ 2 17s 3d which they generously paid by arrangemenl with the Commonwealth Government tb the lady for the loss of her husbanc whilst m their employ. We are promised legislation upon this subject, bul the promise seems to remain a long way from performance, and m tht meantime women and children are suffering from the laxity of the Australian and New Zealand Governments and the greed of some of the shipping proprietaries, who, by the way, an making vast sums of money througt the energy and enterprise and loyaltj of the men m their employ, who face "danger zones" daily m the convoy ol transports and provisions for the fronl without having any assurance that ir the event of accident their dear ones will be properly and adequately cared for. As the position stands, the wages of a seaman cease at the instant he ia thrown out of active employment. II his vessel Is torpedoed or sunk, and he barely escapes with his life, or is taken prisoner, his wages automatically cease. Should he reach a foreign port . the owners of his vessel are under contract to. pay for his return passage to the port from which he (Shipped, but to •-. A PRISONER INTERNED IN . GERMANY this, of course, would not apply until he was m a position to return from Germany, and m the meantime, his dependents must, apparently,' shift foi themselves. A Statute m Great Britain offers relief to the seaman who ia injured by the usages of the enemy, compensates him for the loss of personal possessions, and, it is understood, provides a pension for his dependents m case of injury or death, but there is no such provision m Australia or New Zealand, though the men who work the vessels m Australasian waters are admittedly running just as great risks as those of the soldiers vfcio ore m possession of an adequate pension scheme. Since it has been established that the crew of tlie Matunga had not been sent to the bottom of the eea along with the vessel, which probably was well insured, the dependents of the crew are required to refund all allowances and pensions which they bad received. When the Matunga was reported overdue, Burns, Philp and Co. disbursed a sum of £215 for the Immediate relief of those dependents who wero m urgent distress, and this included a sum of £20 advanced to the lady whose husband was first officer of the vessel. But acting under legal advice, to prevent future claims being based upon this allowance, it was distinctly stated that this amount was only to be considered as a loan, and on discovering that the vessel had been captured by the Germans they sought to recover these loans, by deducting them from THE MISERABLE WEEKLY ALLOWANCES made. This action speaks for itself, It is only fair to state that from the information at our disposal the Union Steam Ship Company appears to have dealt much more generously with the dependenta of those lost or interned .from their boats than Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co, seem to have done. But the matter is not one for individual companies to exercise their discretion m. It is one for a TVfar . Regulation, and a pretty drastic War Regulation at that. v --