GERMAN SEAMEN MUTINY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 12, 15 January 1915, Page 7

GERMAN SEAMEN MUTINY.

TROUBLE AT NEW YORK. There are many evidences of dissensions, bordering in some cases upon revolt, amongst the crews of the scores of German vessels lying idle in American ports. ' It appears that the crews at first enjoyed the experience of being interned in neutral harbors, because the work on board the slr’ps was light and the .hopes of the Teutons were fostered by the distribution, gratis, of German newspapers describing an unbroken series of “victories” on land and sea.

Of Into the crews have begun to understand that all was not going so well at home as they had been led to believe, and this conviction was emphasised when the announcement was made by the Hamburg-America and other lines that wages must bo cut—married sailors to receive only twothirds and the single sailors one. third, beginning November 1. Things become so serious on hoard the Hamburg-Amerioan liner Valeria ml that the officers of the great steamer begged for police assistance, and a small army of constables, armed with revolvers, was despatched to restore ojdcr. Awed by the police, the men went reluctantly on duty, but the trouble, it is known, was only temporarily subdued. There are 750 of the original crew of 1260 on the Vaterland, the others having been sent back to Germany.

Captain Rusor, of the Vaterland, defends the reduction on the ground that the Hamburg-America Company is receiving no income, and that the financial straits justify economy all round. On board the Vaterland at the time was Herr Ecker, manager of the German officers of the HamburgAmerica Line, who came here before the war, and has been unable to return. Herr Ecker refused to comment oh the situation, except to say hat everybody in America was against Germany, and turned molehills into mountains when talking about Ger.

many. If this he true, it is no fault of Count Ilernstorff and Herr Dernburg, who from their headquarters at the R it/.-Carl ton Hotel, Now York, are still launching tons of German literature and interviews upon the American press and public, all designed to prove that Germany is really a “very peaceful, unambitious, and cultured land, desiring only the welfare of the world at large.” This view is not shared by enlightened Americans. who realise more clearly every day that the Allies are fighting for the. ideals of democracy and' freedom on both sides of the Atlantic.