AUSTRALIAN LINE WAS UNION-RIDDEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18496, 23 June 1928, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN LINE WAS UNION-RIDDEN.

SHIPPING VENTURE A LABOUR FAILURE.

(C contributed.) The sensational story from the liner Jervis Bay takes me back to 1925 with a rush. Then T, in a weak moment, went Home on one of these unionridden. “ one-class ships.” 1 very soon dubbed them one class fill right—no class. We read on June 12 of the last voyage under Australian articles of the Ksperance Bay. After referring to the treatment meted out to passengers, the cables added that delightful touch about the stewards throwing the piano overboard so that their successors wnder English articles should not have it On my trip we had a jazz band, but, fis the stewards and crew were not allowed to dance with the passengers, they threw the instruments overboard and treated a passenger’s own gramophone likewise. So dancing was stopped -a true Australian Labour dog-in-the-manger touch. Jock Garden, on June 13, also said quite a nice piece as a gentle threat about dead men telling no tales, etc. He also said: “ The sea was deep.” lolimidation is one of their great weapons. A non-unionist would assuredly thinK. twice of going to sea with these gentle souls, yet here in Christchurch there are Labour leaders who have openly deck red the Commonwealth Line is quite £ success, even if a few millions (about ten) of the taxpayers’ money has gone down a deep drain. It is still quite all right, and the money losses are compensated for by the glorious gains to Australia in other ways! (I can quite imagine the Christchurch Labour council dealing with this subject suitably.) Xo mention, of course, is made of the injury to the country, of the degradation of this Labour experiment, which is now such a complete and ghastly faiiTh© “ Mugs.” T remember one night in the Indian Ocean I was near the f’scle, and one of the crew (at £l6 per month and found' asked me if I would like some chicken! After I had expressed my incredulity, I said : “ How is it you chaps have poultry—the passengers never see it?” he spat and said: “The passengers are only the b mugs! ” One afternoon l made tea and got hot water from the pantry, when the steward noticed my pot, and said, “ Pig Island, bey?” “ Yes,'* I said, “what’s wrong with it?” “Too d Imperialistic.” he replied. I suppose he meant New Zealand was a loyal country. After about a fortnight’s experience of the ship I went ashore at Perth, hungry and with a sickened soul and bate in my heart, and I wrote the following letter for the principal evening paper there. Here it is:— “It is said the Commonwealth Line of steamships do not pay. If bad conditions for passengers rule on the other ships as is the case on the Hobson's Bay. now in Fremantle, there is not much mystery about the matter. The wonder is people use them at all. I was a passenger from Sydney. Here is my story, facts, without ornamentaBad Food. “ The attention and food in cabins is nil. The dining saloon is a horror. If food comes aboard good it is botched beyond recall by the time it is clattered ; down in front of passengers. Yesterday j the menu was soup, ribs beef, braised steak, pumpkin, potatoes, sago. Of the above, the pumpkin and potatoes on appearance were an insult to human beings. The potatoes were bad, and rot half peeled. Stewards often attend tables with a dirty towel slung over their arms. The crockery is often dirty, the prior meal sugar being left in the cups. etc. Stewards have argued with passengers if late—back-talk is common. The room has been swept and sprayed with disinfectant while passengers were still at meals, and adjacent tables flicked with the aforesaid dirty towel. Some stewards are in white coats, and some are dressed like engine-room greasers. There is one saltcellar to ten persons: fish is eaten with a knife, etc.: soup is passed down as in an institution. The steward says Pass it on.’ and not even ‘ please.' Passengers do not have afternoon tea, but the stewards do. Three, said to be supervisors, roam about and watch the poor unfortunate passengers. These men have confidential talkg together— Heaven knows why or what comes of it. Stewards do not step aside to allow passengers to pass (all the passages are narrow), but simply bru**h past, no matter what they are carrying. Meals are taken to the tune of a din—dumped plates, crockery and rowdiness. Two vegetables contained in a dish too heavy for a woman to lift sitting down, often make their appearance fifteen minutes before the moat. Cats roam through the room. The menu is said to be worse than that of a troop ship, and less varied. Officers do not dine in the saloon; thev have their own superior room and facilities. The stewards do. but have lietter utensils than passengers, and sauces, etc., which passengers never see. Dirty Decks. “Much more could l>e said about the dining-room, which is, in my opinion, the worst feature, and one that could easily be improved. The decks are washed down once a day. Anything that happens after sunrise stays. I have seen stewards step cv'r and passengers step into patches of sickness in prominent places on A and B decks. The starboard side of A deck is chained off against passengers, and is for the exclusive use of officers. This breaks the promenade. Such things should be specified in booklets, instead of which the reverse is stated. Seamen and workmen walk through the saloon at meal time even, but passengers are not allowed the use of the boat deck, nor many of the most convenient stairwavs, which are for the use of the crew only. Newspapers are used to stand on in cabins; there is no carpet, and the concrete is too cold for bare feet. One bath towel a week is allowed. Enough rubbish .to build a mouse nest was picked out of a grating of a washbasin; such things are never cleaned—only the outside. I know two passengers who got into unchanged beds at Sydney. Anything that occurs after hours means overtime. It is said that the crew generally, by comparison with other services, highly paid. Of course, even Tom Walsh could not arrange for passengers to be sick between 8 and 5 alone. In short, everything is worked or not worked, so that one realises th** position. If the fare ras £lO more, and lust a few of the decencies of life were included, especially during meal hours, then these ships would not be such howling failures, and passengers would not feel so degraded and outraged The marvel is that the ship ever left Australia after that letter was published When I came aboard “full of hope and glory” the first thing I saw was the chief steward examining the cups already set out for the remains of the previous meal’s sugar! It works.’’ I thought. It worked all right J quickly discovered that the culprit would ony have to be found to provide a fitting precedent lor Jock

Garden’s now fa:nous threat of June 13, 1928, so I kept mv own counsel, fortunately, and lived to return to New Zealand on a line other than * the Commonwealth. Incidentally. Tom Walsh, Jock Garden and Jacob Joransen. the Sydney Labour “heads.’’ were going great, work for “the cause' at that time and had succeeded in piling up shipping in every Australian port, by strikes and other means. From Colombo we did not. know where the ship would touch, all was conjecture, and I used to ask the stew- j ard at breakfast. “Well; any word from i Tom? 1 ’ Australia must, "be a great ; country: it is still putting up with I these destructors, and existing The “spirit, of the Commonwealth ships killed the line—nothing else. “Put a beggar on horseback and he will ride to the devil”—that gentleman has now claimed his own. ,To day’s chaos presents an object lesson to the world of labour control and management j