“PRACTICALLY DEAD”

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1927, Page 12

“PRACTICALLY DEAD”

TRADE ON CHINA COAST. A VUR'ULENT BOYCOTT. Some interesting aspects of the shipping trade on the China coast are mentioned in a letter from the branch secretary of the Marine Engineers’ Guild of China, which was. received in Auckland recently, the object of the communication being to correct a statement that the Canton boycott of Hong Kong has ended, that most of the river traffic is on the point of resumption, and that there are opportunities for the employment of marine engineers there. “There is no guarantee,” says the writer, “that the so-called Canton Government has the time, power, or inclination to control the self-appointed strike committee, and, although the strike is said to be officially called off, the boycott on British nationals, their ships and their merchandise, is nevertheless as virulent as ever. It is, in effect, more so, because, being officially illegal, it is not openly controlled by the Government, but is secretly aided and abetted in every possible way by every separate member of that revolutionary andAself-constituted, supine and powerless authority. For the moment many, but not nearly all, of the boats are making attempts to resume running, but with very indifferent success, hampered as they were by every possible obstruction a wily, revolutionary proletariat can conceive and put into practice, which, if not surmounted and outmanoeuvred will soon put us back to where we have been for fifteen weary, long months, in helpless idleness.

“The result of this is that the companies are seeking to reduce wages, and the smaller companies are secretly doing so. Owing to the number of une iployed engineers available, some of them are being forced to the conclusion that “half a loaf is better than no bread.” It may not be good tradesunionism, but it Is bard, cold, belt-tight-ening fact. The whole of the Yangtse River ports—the pulmonary artery of the China coast trade, are being subjected to bombardment, destruction, rapine. and murder from, both belligerent factions in this so-called revolution, which has its repercussion on the extreme northern ports as well. Consequently trade is non-existent, so that from one end of the China coast to the other there is no earthly possibility of. stable employment for anyone. We cannot find employment for anything like the number of men that we have here, and who would get out of it if they could pay their fares. The Government, while assisting several to get away, has maintained others by a dole.

“1 would therefore urge that a warning should be given to engineers who are looking to China as a potential field of labour, as the trade here is practically dead, and there is absolutely no sign of any improvement in sight,” the writer concludes. "To add to the difficulties of the position, the value of the dollar in the last three months has fallen from 2s 2d to Is OJd, and in view of the Indian currency question may drop lower.”