Confidential
(Copy) M18883
630
visiting at 17 Lichfield Street, Walsall.
To the President of the Board of Trade
Sir,
Septr. 13 1906
C 0.
34782
20 SEP 06
I am glad to see that Seamen are to have a "mouth-piece" before a Shipping Master.
I have travelled much, as ships surgeon, & as Transvaal Government Superintendent of Chinese Coolies.
I have been 20 years in practice in England, & also at Convict Prisons, & in charge of Troops: I can hardly be a sentimentalist altogether! Yet the way in which civil matters between seamen & their employers are treated as criminal is quite outrageous to a civilian. Prisoners, soldiers, & lunatics are without exaggeration better able to have their side of the case put before a judge appointed; such as is the Shipping Master. Now for chapter & verse
In Hong Kong I have seen the Shipping Master (who is a Macao half-caste with a long finger nail) act, to put it mildly, hectoringly to the crews. In one case a captain (who had not been in those waters before & had to send home his crew of white men) got great trouble; He had not tipped the S.M., which (you will find on enquiry) is the usual thing. On the next transaction the tip made matters smooth. I don't mind the captains tipping the S.M. (who by that means holds an office he dare not lose)! China seems to insist on bribes! But I want crews watched in their rights when before him. I have never personally had trouble with crews.