THE MERCANTILE MARINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 200, 13 May 1918, Page 7

THE MERCANTILE MARINE

Sir,—a paragraph appears in your paper of even date stating |hat a correspondent has protested against the uso of he term "naval officer" as applied to certain men , found upon some premises ill. Kelburn, stating they were not "naval officers," but belonged to the mercantile marine. Poor mercantile marine! It is not only feeding tho • Old Country, its armies, its Boyal Navy, including ntwal officers, and also' incidentally providing most of the officers nird men now in His Majesty's service as naval ratings, doing all tho hard, dirty work of minesweeping, patrolling, etc., but it now ie, ■apparently, the only service of whioh members are found in questionable resorts. I trust this will make it olear to . your correspondent that we do not wish to be known as naval officeis. We are the senior service: in existence ages before the Eoyal Navy • waa thought

of. Wo defeated tho Armada, only about twenty "Queen's ships" being engaged. Drako, .Vrobishor, HawkiM, Kodnoy, Howo, Blake (also r. eoldfev), Nolson, Jevvis, and scoicb more were the Products of the mercantile uiariuo. Wo have run for years without guns. Wo would sooner bo without "convoy.'" Wo linvo lost over 15,000 men in Una war, nutl nono have refused to "sign on," and wo havo given tho lie to the statements of "naval officers" like Sir Percy Scott, that, "when one merchant ship was sunk England would starve, because no merchant ship would go to seR." Wβ do not wish to be. mistaken lor "naval oflicors." U'o iiro officers of tho /service which feeds and clothes.the .Navy, among othor thingsj and also, incidentally, the reason-'of tho Navy's existence; and to anyone who has soon Portsmouth, DtvonlHU't, Chatham, etc., tho inference drawn by your correspondent that "Royal Navy" men are never found wjjero .they should not bo, is ridiculous.— J am, etc., MERCHANT OFFICER, [Our correspondent does barn justice to tho part the mercantile marine has played in the present war. Tho officers and men of our merchant shipping , , by their courage, skill, and eolf-sacrifice, have won the admiration and gratitudo of tho whole of their countrymen.]