16
- 2 -
represents, to assist seamen registered with them to
obtain such certificates, particularly as the
certificates came to be much sought after by persons who
hoped to be able to avoid the Malayan immigration
restrictions by using them as a kind of passport. The
concluding words of the petition seem to indicate that
this as much as employment on board ships is in the
writer's mind.
3.
The great proportion of the business of
recruiting seamen of Chinese race for the shipping
Companies is in the hands of a large firm of compradores
and stevedores, styled Wang Kee, and it is known that
small associations, such as that which submitted the
present petition, have encountered severe competition in
their efforts to obtain employment for their own men and
fees for such services. Another similar petition,
received in October, 1937, from a small association of
this nature, actually stated that the object of the
petitioners was to force the Wang Kee firm to reduce
its commission for finding employment by obtaining the
backing of Government for their association. The
policy adopted by this Government, however, has been not
to lend its support to any particular recruiting agency,
since it could not see any justification for exerting
pressure on shipping companies to engage seamen through
other than their accustomed agencies. These enrol also
seamen who are natives of the New Territories, though it is a regrettable fact that some of the shipping companies
do not look with favour on the New Territories seamen,
on the grounds that these are not so amenable to
discipline as the less enlightened natives of Chinese
territory.