SEAMEN AND INFLUENZA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 51, 25 November 1918, Page 5

SEAMEN AND INFLUENZA

Sir,—Trust our (friend the seaman to turn any trouble such as -tho present epidemic to good account. For some days I have waited 'to hear of his demands, and to-day they aro. out. "Ono pound per day and overtime in proportion," and he will run the boats that are bo urgently required, if only to take home tho soldiers beinjj discharged from, camp. Most likely similar terms aro "demanded" boforo the boat with tho citrous and other fruits can leave Sydney for . New Zealand. Sick people, or dying people, or released soldiers, need look for no measure of sympathy from the seaman or the watersider. Not that the soldier ever got much in any case. Prominent amongst the "sine die" men w& find the sesjiiM. I can. point out many a seaman, thus exempted, iraa has been practically the whole of his time working ashore at waterside worker rates. Now that ships aie urgently required, what is the seaman, doing? Nothing! Dozens of vessels are laid aside, and (it is not because men are unprocurable), will not start again until these self- 1 styled public benefactors have pulled off I some coup ov another. They want their quarters cleaned and lavatories shifted to the other end of the ship. Why, ] would, be a rich man if I had £1 for every trip I've made into forecastles to dig men out who have failed to turn to, and been disgusted and sickeneu" at the sight of tho men's quarters, Empty beer bottles, dirty socks and underclothes, and scraps of foods of various kinds, were scattered about "the room." The lavatory trouble does not lie in the position of the conveniences on the ship, but in the fact that the men are so often too tired to pay proper attention to it. No, if the men aro going to put forward claims to gall the public, then it is only a., fair thing to let the public into the know as regards the real conditions. To think that at a time of trial and trouble like the present the seameu should ask for their pounds of flesh! Why, it gives one the creeps! Where are our defence laws that tnese sine die men catinot be forced to work at their callings—watersiders and seamen alike? The epidemic has carried off no more men from amongst these two branches of labour than it has men and women of other walks in life.—l am, etc., HIT STRAIGHT.