SHIPPING IMPASSE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 17 March 1926, Page 9

SHIPPING IMPASSE.

THE OWNERS TURN DEAF EAR. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. /’ualraiian and N.Z. Cable Assoclat)**. SYDNEY, March 16. The request of the secretary of the Federated Seamen’s Union for a conference with the coastnl steamship owners was considered by a meeting of the Coastal Owners’ Association, who refused to meet tho Union, stating that members of the Associaton have no faith in the Union or its officers. , They express the opinion that no good purpose would be served by conferring with the Union. The reply continues: “The position is one of the Union’s own making, and as the undertaking of the Union under which the men were reinstated in August last, had been treated so lightly, tlie members of this Association do not feel justified in meeting the Union in conference. They fear from the experience of the past that the officials of the Union regard a settlement and the conditions of settlement only as a fleeting obligation, entered into for the purpose of getting Union members back to their jobs, when the object of the strike has failed.. Your members refused to carry out their jobs, and others had to be engaged to take their places, and the companies obligations are to the present crews.”

‘‘STRIKE DELIBERATELY ENGINEERED.” , LEADER’S APPEAL TO MEN. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. Au»tr»liaQ and N.Z. Oablo A»ioct»tiv« (Received March 16, 11.5 p.m.) MELBOURNE, March 16. The members of the Committee of Management of the Seamen’s Unions interviewed the shipowners and asked them to agree to the men holding a stop-work meeting to discuss the internecine dispute in the union. The owners agreed after the members of committee pointed out that owing to the internecine dispute, the trouble" on the coastal vessels of New South Wales was becoming very grave, and was now threatening to involve the waterside workers, and possibly Inter-State shipping. At a stopwork meeting, the members of the committee and Mr Walsh pointed out to the men that the coastal strike in New South Wales had been deliberately engineered without the sanction of responsible officials, and was doomed to failure from the outset. They further alleged that the Johannsen faction was deliberately endeavouring to involve Intei’-State ships, part of their plan being to embarrass the Federal officials. The union officials urged that a serious position could be averted if commonsense and solidarity prevailed among seamen.