GAOL FOR SEAMEN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1837, 25 August 1913, Page 8

GAOL FOR SEAMEN.

MR. BELCHER SPEAKS UP FOR THE UNION. Mr. W. Belcher, secretary of the Dunedin branch of the Federated Seamen's Union, is indignant over .the message cabled from Sydney to the cffect.that four seamen belonging to the Durham wore sentenced to a fortnight's imprisonment for refusing to be vaccinated. "The Seamen's Union," ho 6ays, "wish to strongly protest once more against .the unjust punishments that aro banded out to seamen. There is tho social aspect of this injustico. Quito possibly tho wives and families of men thu3 sent to gaol are looked upon as being something' inferior to other persons in tho community. Then there is the outrage to the men themselves. Because these men, perhaps for very good reasons, will not submit to inoculation they are dragged off to prison and thus branded as criminals. It is monstrous. One can readily understand that when a diseaso becomes epidemic, persons must submit to tho precautions laid down by the Boards of Health. I do not complain about, that. ■What I do complain about is the nature of the alternatives. I say that a seaman who objects to bo vaccinated has a rieht, if ho chooses to exercise it, to demand his discharge from tho vessel, allowing someone else who doesn'.t mind vaccination to take his place. To fling a man into prison simply because ho will not submit to tho needle because he conscientiously objects to it in tho first instance, and because ho knows that whilst tho virus is working he will have to perform duty such as that of a stokehold, whoro dirt and filth and heat are just the very conditions that may land him in a hospital for months — well, it is unspeakably unfair. There are any number of people who commit more heinous offences than refusing to be vaccinated and yet manage to escape gaol. .Did you over hear of a bank manager, ot a lawyer, or a superintending manager being imprisoned for such an offence? No. That is a punishment reserved for seamen. It is a most remarkable thing, and quite in accordance with the outrageous laws that threaten seamen and leavo others immune. Gaol seems to be the fate of the seaman every time. If lie absents himself from'duty—gaol. If he takes a glass too much —gaol. If lie refuses to bo vaccinated—gaol. The next thing we shall, hear is that he is to bo sent to gaol if ho does not join the Y.M.C.A. Do our legislators really think that tho sailor enjoys going to gaol? It looks like it."