TREATMENT OF SEAMEN.

NZ Truth, Issue 69, 13 October 1906, Page 6

TREATMENT OF SEAMEN.

A SCANDALOUS CASE. Men Dragged From the Hospital arid Dumped on tlie' Wharf . Timely Intervention of Seamen's Union Secretary Young. Two letters appeared .m - last issue from , correspondents . who were ' eye witnesses of an ■■■occurrence tliat took place on the wharf on the Tuesday previous. The charges made therein are of a most serious character, and '"Truth" has been to some pains to find out whether such statements were warranted . by . fact orotherwise. The facts of the case appear to be as follows : Two searaen were invalided from the barque Brimnel and were sent to the ' Hospital for treatment. The men were still m the Hospital on Tuesday last, on which date the Brunnel was timed to sail for Dunedin. The captain sent a cab to the Hospital requesting that the two men be conveyed on board. Why the Hospital authorities should have allowed the men to leave that . institution m the condition 'thqy were m is not apparent, but leave they did, although not voluntarily. They arrived on the wharf and were dumped down with as much ceremony as a case of soap might be slims from the hold. The men teing I ,ill, protested that they could not go aboard. They were both too weak to work, and it is doubtful whether they were fit to stand the -' voyage, even as invalids. ' Whilst they were still an the wharf Mr Young, secretary of the Seamens' Union, came on the "sceme. and seemg 'the men's pitiable condition, he took the law ' into his own hands and ordered them back to the cab. Whether Mr Young took the legal view of the situation or not is a matter for question, but he took the humane and manly view, and refused to see TWO HELPLESS INVALIDS shipped aboard a vessel as ablebodied seamen. The men were put into the cab again, and m company with Mr Young were driven to Dr. Maclcin. That gentleman, after a thorough examination, pronounced one to be suffering from a wound m the leg, and the other from an acute j disease that had left him m a state of frightful debility. Both men, he said, were quite unfitted for work, and both fit subjects for the hospital. Armed with a certificate from the doctor, the. men were driven back to the Hospital, and the doctor "then informed Mr Young that he had let, the men out of the Hospital, not as able to work, but only as sufficiently well to be shipped to Dunedin, and there ,again treated for their ailments. As a consequence the men are still m the Hospital, and the batrque Brunnel has had to proceed on her way to Dunedin without them. Whether the skipper was able to secure J;he necessary extra hands, or whether his vessel sailed short handed we do not know, but it is very evident, from the facts above given, that had the captain been able to get the two invalids aboard he would have made the passage with a 'full complement of seamen on his books, but m reality two short. l ■■ . , In blaming Mr Smith, the Shippine Master, m the matter our correspondent is evidently at fault, as the men were not on the wharf until afle v the Shipping Office was closed. Directly, therefore, the • Shipping Office cannot.-. be held accountable, but indirectly it is . VERY MUCH TO BLAME. It must have been known to Mr Smith that these two men had been removed to the Hospital,' and it must have also been known to him that Ihe Brunnel was due to sail on that date, and that there was a difficulty m .securing a crow. If Mr Smith was not aware of these things and did not, t-r could not, take precautions to prevent the ship either sail-

ing short manned or with sick sailors shipped as A.B.s, we would like to know of what use the Shipping Master is, and to what end he draws his pay. This is not the first time that complaints have been made against the Shipping Master and the conduct of his office, and it might be as well if some enquiry were held into the why and wherefore of the present case. It is a disgraceful state of affairs for a civilised country that two invalids can be brought from their beds m a public hospital and dumped down at a ship's side as though they were cargo,and (had it 'not been for Mr Young's timely action) booked as ordinary seamen capable of doing seamen's work. It is this sort of thing that is killing the British sailor. He objects to being treated as so much carrion and gives place to the Scandy and the Squarehead. It will be a very bad look out for England if ever she has need to man her war-ships from the mercantile marine.