THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT IN SYDNEY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 284, 7 December 1878, Page 5

THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT IN SYDNEY.

THE STHIKB OF SEAMEN. Telegrams from Sydney have informed our readers of tha strike of the European seamen employed on the Australasian Stoam Navigation Company's vessel because of the employment of Chinese seamen on board of the Company's sbipe. Great dissatisfaction has (or some timo time been felt by the European sailors on this subject, and that dissatisfaction culminate 1 about three weeks ago in a general strike of all the European seamen and firemen employed od the Company'a ships, because tho Compmiy liad refuged to discharge the Chinese seamen employed. The following ia n statement of the facts connected with the strike, copied from the " Sydney Evening Newa : "— Previous to the present rupture tie company had three vessels wortted by Chinese, viz : the Black Swan, on the Fiji Coast Service ; the Weat.worlb, in the trade between Sydney aud Fiji ; and the Gungai in the Now Caledonia trade. The results of tliaso experiment 8 of Chinese labor have been closely watched by the cotnpnny, and acting upon tho result, it was resolved to place Chinese orews on board of the Boomerang, Leichardt, James Paterson, Tinonoe, and Yaralla. It waa whea the company attempted to put this resolution into force that the men on board the whole of the company's fUeuniere at present in port, apparently by pre-urrnngetneni, struck. Id appears that the customary rate of wages paid by tho A.S.N. Company to the European firemen on the coast baa been £8 per mouth. It may be mentioned that many of the opposition steamers coasting between Cooktown and Melbourne employ Chinese firemen and deck hands. The E. and A. Mail Company wera the first to introduce this description of labor on the coast, and since they have beeu running no Europeans have beeu employed. The commanders of these steamers are unanimous in favor of Chinese, over Europeans, particularly in regard to thair fitness to bear tropical weather and the heat of the stokehole. Their sobriety is another strong reason put forward in their lavor, and they ore stated to be universally civil, arid always ready for turning to whenever called upon. The pay given by the E. and A. Mail Compaay to firemen is £2 153 per month, and where they previously employed twelvo Europeans, they have found it necessary to substitute sixteen. The steamship Adola, running between Newcastle and Melbourne, has employed Chinese for some time past, and C&ptoiu Saunderson, writing to his agents, Messrs Cowlishaw Bros., states that "the Chinese fireman have oil shipped agaio, for which I am very glad,as we get. so much better results from them, and I wonder that the large companies don'fcemploy them. Our last passage from Melbourne wharf to Newcastle wharf was only 62 hours, : and the voyage before was 63 hours. We oould never do this with English firemen." The steamship Coonanb&ra left the company's wharf at 11 o'clock last night, having a crew of eleven firemen procured from the steamship Ocean, and besides these there were only three Europeans on board, namely, Captain Adams, his second officer, and second mate. The Victoria, whose crew sirack yesterday afternoon, and walked ashore in a body, procured a Chinese crew, and left for Cooktown at daylight this morning. The steamship Boomerang, for Rockhampton, was also deserted by her English crew, and could not take her departure a6 the advertised time, but the company have made such arrangements as will enable' her to leave to-day. The seamen on board tha the Ly-ee-moon also struck this morning, though no attempt was made to put Chinese on board. ■ The quiet appearance of affairs on the wharf to-day; is in most unhappy comparison to the activity of yesterday. The entire body of wharf labourers, ; many of whom have. been for twenty years in the employ, have left and joined the Union men. THE SEAMEN'S VIEW OF THE CASE. The men's view of the cass is mainly contained iu the circular, which ia ; being freely distributed to-day to the public. In (his circular they urge that for sorao time past the A.S.N. Com« pany have been quietly superseding their European crews by * Chinese crews, and that the importation of 100 Chinesa sailors by th« 5.9. Ocean from Hongkong is a direct proof of the compoy's intention to man the whole of their vessels by Chiuese, and this the men are determined to resist to the utmost. They therefore confidently appeal to their brother seamen to assist them in the struggle, and call upon them to refuse to ship iu any of the company's vessels. They state that they are sacrificing themselves, not only for their own, benefit but for the benefit of the : seamen throughout the colonies, as, if tbe A.S.N. company can successfully employ Chinese, their example will be followed by all other steam companies in Australia. They appeal to all seamen to refuse to ship in , any boat s where the men are on . strike, and this ! is to include all firemen, trimmers; deck I hands, «tewwd.s J ' l or cqoW qu boftird'

vesaek which carry Chinese erewa. A foetnote to the circular requests wharf' hands riot to "ship by the run" in any : ' of the boats on strike. Themeato day are exceedingly good-humoured, and express no ill-will whatever againnfc the A. S. N. Company. All they insist is that Chinese shall no longer be ■em-; 1 ployed with them. A large number ■' of the men are not enrolled in the AntiChinese Union, and those who do not ? belong to it are being looked after with a view to get them to join at once. This means a subscription of one shilling per week per toau to provide the necessary funds to continue the strike.