Humiliating Display Of Human Frailty

Chronicle (Levin), 21 July 1949, Page 11

Humiliating Display Of Human Frailty

SHIPPING HOLD-UPS IN DOMINIONS

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, July 20. , Describing the constant shipping hold-ups m Australia and New Zealand as " a» distressing and humiliating exhiDition of human frailty," 'the Liverpool Journal of Commerce and Shipping appeals editorially to labour leaders in both countties to do something to check constant increases in costs which these delays entail and to try seriously to settle differences dividing them from the shipowners. ' ' The suggestion that no matter how high wages rise or how short a weqk is worked for increased pay, the shipowners can, hy passing the increases on to passenger fares and cargo freights, recoup themselves and make further profits, needs no elahoration to expose its economic absurdity, ' ' says the arfcicle. "It must he realised sooner oi later that there is a point beyond which passengers and merchants alike will refuse to go. ' ' The shipowners are willing ancl anxious to restore and extend prewar services but it is obvious that the upvvard trend of costs and charges makes progress almost impossible. The Australian Government is urging a restora tion of calls which, in the present state of affairs, would prove wholly uneco uomical and would, seriously curtaii even the present very costly services. Ships like the Orcades which cost "between £3,250,000 and £3,400,000 and the

reeonditioning of other ships at • more than their original cost, together with the increase in maintenance and operating charges, eonsutute a practicai (chalienee to the future and justify those 'owners who have declared that they will r.efrain from building new ships or acquiring other tonnage with all its obligations. • "On aseertained figures it will be a formidable task to earn depreciation, meet insurance premiums and eover charges for fuel, wages, port dues and the like. When workers defiantly g0' slow all the week in order — as they are doing in Lremantle— to force overtime ' for Sundays to a ridieulous rate of 12s 6d per hour up to noon and 17s 6d per hour' thereafter, it becornes virtually impossible^ "Consider, too, the faet that the ships, because of delays in turnrounds, havp been forced to sail with vacanl cargo space and leave thousands oi tons of valuable cargo on the quayside in order. to maintain schedules. "It is a distressing and humiliating exhibition of human frailty and exposes beyond challenge the ineptness and ignorance with which the workers are being led. Government as well as private enterprise, is being tested in full measure and it remains to be seen whether the workers will realise before j-t is too late, that they are steadily checking every attempt of the owners to maintain the volume of trade." i ■■■■inwni i ii