THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1909. FOREIGN SAILORS ON BRITISH SHIPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3183, 7 May 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1909. FOREIGN SAILORS ON BRITISH SHIPS.

The question of what effect war would have upon tne British mercantile marine is a most important one. It is a phase of war that is generally overlooked, the place tacitly allotted to the "mercantile shipping in discussing preparations and possibilities being that of something the protection 01 which is essentially one of Hie greater duties the Jhmpire keeps an invincible navy to attend to. It never seems to be suspected that the merchant service itself might be rendered unequal to the work of carrying the commerce owing to its depletion of so many officers and men upon the Royal Naval Reserve being called upon for active service; or that if it could be effectively manned and officered in spite of that drain, reliance would have to be riskily placecl upon foreigners. There are said to be about 25,000 officers and men in the merchant service who belong to the Royal Naval Reserve, and the number of white British seamen employed in vessels belonging to the United Kingdom in 1907 was 194,848 out of a total of all nationalities of 277,146. If the navy called up 25,000, therefore, it would the British mercantile "establishment"' by nearly an eighth, which, though a substantial reduction, ought not to be a serious one unless it could be shown that there was an excessively big proportion of irreplaceable officers among the 25,000. Where the loss might prove heavy is in conjunction with the general British disinclination for merchant sailoring as an occupation. When there are 27,000 desertions from British ships in a single year, and when the number of British seamen is found to be smaller now than it was in 18*70—in spite of the improvement the figures have shown during the last few years —it becomes evident that the service is expanding beyond the capacity of the national supply of tseamen to°keep pace with it. Great Britain arid the United States suffer alike from an insufficiency of native seamen, and for much the same reason—namely, that a sailor's life has more discomforts and carries a smaller reward than shore occupations. Among some

of the other nations who contribute so largely to the make-up of both British and American ships' crews it is just the reverse. The Scandinavians and other northern Europeans are sailors by tradition and predilection to begin with; and in their land industries they are so miserably remunerated that a berth on a British ship at £3 a month is something for them to covet. Hence the fact that there are over 37,000 foreigners in the service, where the tendency is for them to increase. Although it scarcely follows that the calling out ot the Royal Naval Reserves would j leave the service to be practically run by foreigners, they would bulk bigger by comparison as Britishers were withdrawn. More than that, it is to be feared that more foreigners would have to be brought in to fill up the broken British ranks, thereby disclosing the real weakness of Great Britain's position, her inability to man the commercial shipping with Britishers. So far that disability doesjnot show out in tLe navy, where it might have been expected to reflect itself. If the conditions and pay are bettered, and ii improved facilities for training lads are provided, the merchant marine, in the opinion of soma authorities, might be wholly manned by British sailors. As things stand now it certainly is not pleasant to reflect that the national sea-commerce might be so largely dependent on foreigners* in war time.