BRANDED MEN EIKE SHEEP.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 12, 21 September 1910, Page 42

BRANDED MEN EIKE SHEEP.

— I The practice of branding seamen, aa though they were so many sheep, was complained of by a seamen’s deputation to the President of the Board of Trado, a few days ago. The practice has been' in force on British ships at Antwerp) and, although the ship-owner's try tq make little of it, the knowledge that sailors are so treated has come as a shock to most people. It is the general custom io require sailors before “signing on” to pass a, medical examination. Dr. De Dekcnj an Antwerp doctor, found that certain “crimps” and boarding masters substituted men who were not in good health, for those who had passed the tests he imposed. Thed did this with the object of obtaining money that was due to them out of the advance notes given to the substituted seamen. Dr. De Deken then tried the plan of giving certificates to those he passed. But those werd found to be negotiable, and did not interfere with the evil. Finally tie conceived the idea of impressing a rubber stamp on the wrist of the successful candidates. Each man then showed !iis wrist as he went aboard the snip. The stamp bears the doctor’s name and the initials of the Shipping Federation, Ltd., with the date. The fact that the stamp v ill wash out on application of soap and water ,'s put forward by the Shipping Federation as a defence of their action. it never seems to have occurred to (hem that soap and water can never wash out the shame of men being branded like cattle. If crimps practice deception on the ship masters, the Shipping Federation would surely be better employed in abolishing the crimps, and in providing decent sailors’ homes than in upholding and defending the branding of seamen. Most people, I fancy, will agree that eon-mer-cial morality has sunk very iow when it essays to defend that brand of degradation on the seaman’s wrist.