Why Seamen Were Pleased With Mr. Elliott

Chronicle (Levin), 4 July 1947, Page 5

Why Seamen Were Pleased With Mr. Elliott

-Press Association

By Tetegraph

' WELLINGTON," July 3: An admission that tliere; were no legal grounds for the claim which lietted more thali £10,000 fiS additional payment to the Wanganella seamen, because the award provicled special rates of 2s 6d and 3s 9d a working hour when a sliip was wrecked or stranded, is now made by the official publication of the Australian Seamen 's Union.. Tli-e paper prints on the cover a 1 photograph of the Wanganella stranded on Barrett's Reef, and it devotes One and a half nasTS of newspress to the claims made ' by the 'f'ederal secretary of the Anstralian Seamen 's Union (Mr. Eliot Y. Elliott). / ' Mr. Elliott was mentioned in the Honse- of Represeiitatives last week,- when Mr. A. J. Murdoch (National, Marsden) asked whether the Governmeiit intended this session to ilitrodiice legislation prohibiting the eiitry into New Zealand of "Australian or otlier agitators or other undesirable persons illtent on the disruption of New Zealand 's domestic affairs." The Australian seamett's paperrecalls that 36 members of the union received, as a result of Mr. Elliott 's activities, £1S a day in additioii to their ordinary wages and war bonus. After saying that there were no legal grounds for the claim, because of the award provision described, the publication states: — £Federai secretary Elliott achieved uliprecedented gain after being met by an iron curtain in his .efforts to negotiate with tlie owners and the underwriters in Australia. " The paper says also that Mr. Elliott, after coiifcrring with "other meiiiliers of the union executive," and flying to New Zealand, ££suecessfully imposed a £black' hau on the Wanganella," He also received ££the full, wholehearted siipport of New Zealand unions concerned." When the seamen staged their ££lightning strike," Mr. Elliott was attacked by almost every New Zealand paper, and by the Minister of Works (Mr. Semple), the publication contiiiuos. It claims also that Mr. Semple ££w.as given three columiis in the neWspapers for his attack." The paper comments: ££ When. different unions within a country comliiiie for a common ohjective, the employers are dismayed . . . when unions in different coimtries form a united front, the Vmployers beconie really fearful of the coiisequeiices to themselves." It is stated also by the paper that the bond-welded betweeli Australian and N ew, Zealand workers in the Wanganella dispute can be strengthened and that ££the Australian sealnen salute the New Zealand workers for their uiiqualifi ed support. ' '