Australian Shipping Trouble.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18412, 19 June 1925, Page 8

Australian Shipping Trouble.

The reappearance of the Seamen's Union in the Australian cable news is unpleasant, if not yet disturbing, and anxiety is not removed by this morning's messages. Present-day waterfront troubles in Australia are so involved with previous grievances that it is difficult for those not on the spot to trace the dispute through its many phases; it is even doubtful if the men have not lost themselves in the maze into which their advocacy of " principles" has led them. The reasons advanced by the men's leaders for the unrest which has been in evidence since December have undergone innumerable, changes, and stability, even stability of dispute, has not yet been reached. It is a far cry back to the seaman in Brisbane who left his vessel because the Court'refused him payment for nothing, while few remember that one big issue was the exact spot on the waterfront where labour should be engaged, and another the hotly-con-tested question of preference to returned soldiers and sailors. Both have now been forgotten in the excitement aroused by the formal deregistration of the Seamen's Union. After being before various Courts since January, the application by the employers for deregistration has been granted, and it is almost permissible to suppose that the shipping companies, which have been the chopping-block for the unions since the end of last year, are about to assert themselves. In Melbourne they have refused to guarantee the deregistered men the wages and conditions the latter were in a position to demand when they worked under the protection of the Arbitration Court award. 'The position now is that while deregistration has made it technically possible for the companies to engage "free" labour, conformable only to the requirements pf the Navigation Act, the men's organisation considers itself free to operate as an industrial union unhampered by the rulings of the Court. It will be interesting to sec what developments follow at Sydney when the articles of inter-State vessels trading with that port expire at the end of the month.