CO129-325 - Public Offices & Others - 1904 — Page 246

1. 16474

TOKYO

C. O.

36945

244

IP 28 OCT 04]

July 20th, 1904.

I

No. 44

Consular.

My Lord :-

Some days ago the British Acting Consul at Nagasaki applied to me for instructions under the following circumstances :-

The crews of three British ships which had arrived in Nagasaki with cargoes of coal, consigned to Japanese subjects at that port, had refused to work on the ground that the vessels were carrying contraband. This action was taken by the men on the advice, I understand, of the Hongkong representative of the Seamen's Mission. The matter was subsequently settled in the case of one vessel by the Captain's giving a rise of wages to the crew, and, in that of the other two, by the intervention of Mr Acting Consul Holmes who was able to convince the crews that they were not entitled to any rise of wages, and that having arrived at the port to which the contraband was consigned, they could no longer have any ground of complaint. Mr Holmes informs me, however, that one of the vessels is about to take on board a cargo of coal at Moji for Singapore, and that the crew threaten again to refuse to work, citing the case of the British Steamship "Allanton", which, as Your Lordship is aware, was seized by a Russian Cruiser while bound for a neutral port. I have not yet heard from His Majesty's Consul at Shimonoseki that the ship's crew have given any trouble at Moji.

Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G.,

&c, &c, &c,

800

84

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ALANG PO AZ(as)