WORK ON SHIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20284, 6 December 1935, Page 11

WORK ON SHIPS

OPPOSITION TO SHORTER HOURS STINGING CRITICISM OF BRITISH ATTITUDE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received December 5, 5.5 p.m.) GENEVA, December 4. At the Maritime Conference, Sir Ronald Garrett, director of the Orient Line, said that a reduction of hours must result in a reduction in wages, otherwise the countries with ships paying high wages must be forced to take their ships out of commission. Mr Ernest Nevin replied that the shipping industry was developing in the countries paying the best wages. The rates of pay in the British coastal trade were the same as those the Lord Mayor of London approved in 1889. The shipowners had not lost the sail-ing-ship mind. Could an 84-hour week be tolerated by British seamen, when everybody else had 48 hours or less. "British shipowners are opposed to the convention to regulate hours and manning, which does not take into account the rates of pay,” said Sir Ronald Garrett, director of the Orient Line, on November 28, at the Maritime Conference. He argued that the suggested procedure would aggravate the existing disparity in wage rates between the various maritime nations. Mr George Reed, on behalf of the British seamen, regretted the British owners’ attitude, from which the owners of the United States and France dissented. A sub-committee was appointed to proceed with the preparations for a full conference.