LASCAR SEAMEN

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 12

LASCAR SEAMEN

FEAR OF BEING TORPEDOED GOOD RESULTS BY LEADER Despite an offer to increase their pay by 100 per cent, 94 Lascar seamen on steamers at Sydney refused j to take their ships to sea, fearing that they might be mined or torpedoed if they were taken into the war zone. J The authorities summoned from J India a man who was known to exI ercise great influence over them, a I man whom they profoundly reverenced on religious grounds. Khan Bahadur Fazlul Karim, deputy shipping master at Calcutta, ar - rived in Sydney by air. Dozens of Lascars greeted him with smiles and deep respect. They listened to him | speak and bowed their assent. But , a small number, who refused to be 1 satisfied until they had enjoyed further argument, protested about this and that. It was then that Khan Bahadur Fazlul Karim demonstrated that he was doubly the master. One man who was not entirely satisfied with an answer was grasped by the shoulders, turned round rapidly and given

a smart kick, followed by a hard t shove in the back. i Five or six Lascars were subjected 1 1 to this treatment. Not one of them , - pursued the argument. They went 1 off smiling. In a few moments, Khan Bahadur Fazlul Karim had shepherded his countrymen to their own quarters and the ship was wrapped in silence, broken now and then by high-pitched voices from the meeting room. They were praying. They were praying for the British Empire, for the safety of their ship, for their own safety, and for the safety of they- white officers. The man who wrought this change i said: “There is no doubt in my mind : that powerful influences have been at work somewhere to prevent the Lascars from going about tneir duties in j the ordinary way. What influences I I am not prepared to say. But the j

trouble in Australia is ended. The men will listen to me. They have all agreed to rejoin their ships.”