SHIPPING STRIKE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11123, 24 July 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

SHIPPING STRIKE.

DRAMATIC DISMISSALS OF LINERS' CAPTAINS. PARIS, June 3. A remarkable incident occurred at Marseilles to-day in connection with the naval reservists' strike. M. Jappet. the agent of the Compacnie Generate Transatlantique, sent for all the company's officers in Marseilles, and informed them that they had the choice of siding with the strikers or doing their duty by sailing with naval crews provided from Toulon. The officers gave evasive answers, Dut after conferring together, three of them — Captain Marin, a Knight of the Legion of Honor, commanding the Due de Bragance, and tlie captains of the Ville d'Alger and Calvados— stated that they considered it would be an act of cowardice on their part to abandon their crews on strike. "Then," said the agent, "I dismiss you now from the company's service."

The three captains, the youngest of whom haa been in the company's service for fifteen years, were immediately surrounded by all tlie other ships' officers, who raised a cry of "We will join you." The agent at pnce dismissed them also. As a result there is not a single officer on board any of the company's six liners at present iri the harbor. The captains and officers of the ships belonging to the Messageries Maritimes and other companies, refused, however, to join their colleagues, and went back on board their vessels.