The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1906-01-13 — Page 2

DESERTIONS. IN THE MER-

CANTILE MARINE.

THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND

11

ļ

CHINESE BIOTS AND FOREIGN WOMEN.

་

[January 13, 1906, with a view to driving them on shore, to mercantile marine would become what it avoid paying the wages to which they would ought to be. become entitled during the enforced idleness (Daily Press, 8th January.)

of the ship. Desertions at this port, The "desertion" of merchant seamen is a with few, if any, exceptions, represent a subject with which Hongkong is familiar good profit to the master.' The Consul- by frequent instances; and it is, moreover, General at Valparaiso, calling attention, in a subject that has for a long time received 1898, to the cause of seamen who are left

(Daily Press, 9th Jaunary.) earnest consideration in almost every part behind at foreign ports and merely 'report- of the world. There are many people, how-ed as deserted,' wrote:

Some private advices, belated because they "The master in had waited for the French mail which ever, who are mildly surprised when they such cases appropriates the wages of the arrived yesterday from Shanghai, fully con hear of a common seaman forfeiting by men so left behind. In most cases when a firm the impression we gained of the anti- forty-eight hours' absence as much as three British barque arrives at this port, she has foreign outbreak at the northern port. They or four hundred dollars, who would be still been nearly 100 days at sea, and she remains also add details which, doubtless, from more surprised if they knew more of the in port from one to three months. The motives of delicacy, were ignored by the ins and outs of the matter. It may help to amount of wages due to each seaman report- newspapers published there. We see no do British seamen a good turn if we give a ed as missing is, as a rule, considerable-harm in mentioning that a common form of few observations to make the public's flesh sometimes over £30. It is the regular Chinese. mob violence was not wanting to creep. According to a recent statement by practice for some masters so to harass, complete the tale of horror. As in 1900, a commander of the Royal Navy, the pay irritate, and abuse their seamen that they as at Linchow, as on almost every occasion sytem is largely responsible for desertions. desert. The master thus avoids paying the of the kind we can recall, foreign women Wages are withheld from the crews for the seaman's hardly-earned wages." There are were treated to the nauseous kind of atten- whole round of voyages, outward and home- more opinions like those on record, but we tion which seems to obsess the miud of the ward, for which crews are engaged. No have given enough. There are various Chinese rowdy when on mischief beut. other class of British workmen, by land or suggestions for reform, the chief being an Ladies who happened to be abroad at the sea, have to wait so long for their money. amendment making it compulsory for ship- time the disturbance broke out had much Imagine what would be, said if a longshore- masters to hand over the wages due to the ado to reach their homes with their cloth- man, belonging to a Trade Union, had to Consul, for transmission to the Exchequer; ing intact and it was doubtless the com- wait six months or more for his wages; and aud so "to remove from shipmasters all in- plaints they made privately, in their homes, if, on top of that, he were liable to lose all centives to desire men to desert." The that inspired the guerilla warfare against he had earned if he took a couple of days question of loss to the shipowner by such the mobs, some of the manifestations of "off." Yet this, and far more, has to be desertions (apart from the men's wages which were at first regarded as doing no endured by the long voyage sailor in the altogether) scarcely arises. The expenses credit to the reputation of the white man. mercantile marine. The Naval man draws caused by "desertion should not be In one case, aud this particular one was seven-eighths of his wage once a month, and greater than the expenses caused by reported by the Sunday paper published the balance once a quarter. The crimps decease; they are offset by the saving there, one woman-a respectable Japanese consider the Jack Tar as unworthy their in wages and food, and there are no -was completely denuded in the streets. amiable attentions, in consequence. A funeral expenses to pay. It is maintained, This behaviour of Chine-e mobs we would Parliamentary Paper (No. 334) issued last however, that in the majority of cases these, not have overlooked, as it strongly supports August by the Board of Trade makes it expenses exceed the the value of wages and our previously expressed views with regard quite clear that there is money for somebody properly forfeited. That is, at all events, to the presence of women missionaries in "desertions.". There were nearly twenty- an admission that there is a minority in inland. It is not a question of lock- seven thousand technical desertions in which the forfeitures are greater; and as we ing the stable door after the horse has colonial and foreign ports in 1900; and it have shown, the Exchequer has never been stolen: this particular horse will be is computed that of these twenty-three benefited by any of these minority cases. repeatedly stolen in China, so long as the thousand were cases in which wages and The Report recommends that the master or Chinese Government remains as impotent effects were

forfeited," without any legal owner should render an account when the and inept as we know it to be at present. formality whatever. The Merchant Ship. forfeiture exceeds £5. This limitation is There is a good deal of nonsense talked ping Act of 1894 (sections 221, 232) stipu- far from satisfactory. A sum like £5 is about "the Chinese," and we are liable at lates that such forfeitures shall be made by sufficient to tempt to induce desertions, times to have our position misunderstood a Court, and after reimbursing the owner when such desertions effect savings in other by people who forget that there is no more any expenses caused by the "desertion," ways that compensate for expenses. It is homogeneity in China than in any other the balance of-wages forfeited, if any, shall remarkable that the longer the voyage, and country. When we smile at Europe's be paid into the Exchequer. It appears to therefore the greater the accumulation of complacent assumption that it has intro be the fact that "for many years the unpaid, wages in his employer's keeping, duced "civilization" to one of the oldest Exchequer has never received a shilling in the more likely the sailor is to absent. h.m. civilizatious in the world, we are not incon- that way. Who got the money? The self from the ship without leave for the sistent if we immediately find it necessary Departmental Committee of the Board of forty-eight hours necessary to constitute 10 emphasise the fact that barbarisin is also Trade, which issued the report, discovered "desertion." The United States Com- present in its worst forms in this ancient that the practice is for the master to missioner of Navigation, in his annual empire. No one would dream of measuring retain both wages and effects of deserters; official report, dated 17th October, 1908, the calibre f "the English" by the White- and, more extraordinary still, that "the states, pp. 30-33, of Desertion from Foreign chapel hooligan or the Lancashire pitman. Board of Trade have no power to comr Ships at San Francisco, that :—

In China we have to take account of peer- pel the master or owner to hand over the

less wisdom at times; and still ́admit that wages and property of deserters, or to

everywhere it has hooliganism on a greater prosecute seamen for desertion." They

and viler scale than can be well estimated, further agreed that "there is no doubt

save on such occasions ns its manifestations that a serious number of desertions from

become prominent. No English gentleman British slips take place every year, and the

will strike a woman; there are plenty of wages left behind by the deserters must

English hooligans who kick them aud dance amount in the aggregate to a considerable

on them with clogs. No Chinese gentleman Sum. Suspicion is bound to arise thereon;

views these doings of his baser compatriots and an official statement made by the

with approval; but it is well to remember Consul at Portland, Oregon, in 1898, will

that the immemorial status of Oriental. be less shocking now than it might other

woman is different to that of her European wise sound. He said, "In some instances

sister, and that when mob brutality and the men are harshly treated and made un-

worse is astir, we have to expect things. It comfortable; but in such a way that the

is the conscientious belief that the intrusion officers do not render themselves amenable

of the emancipated foreign woman into to law. This naturally leads to desertions.".

country unprepared for her is a serious The Vice-Consul at Rio de Janeiro roundly.

mistake that emboldens us to repeat declares that the primary cause of deser-

ourselves, at the risk of seeming to tions is “a desire on the part of shipmasters

unduly. to get rid of their crews, in order to profit

missionaries who insist upon the desirability by the confiscation of their wages."" The

of women helpers in such a dangerous field Consul at Rosario says "things are made

of endeavour, after the numerous shocking very disagreeable on board for the men,

lessons we have had, expose their motives,

៥

: 29

|

1. "Desertions from French ships amount to 6 per cent. of the crews. French masters and owners have the strongest pecuniary inducement to prevent desertions.

2. "Desertions from British ships from Australia and Asia amount to 27 per cent. of the crews. British masters and owners have little to gain or lose from such de. sections.

"}

3. "Desertions from British ships from Europe (about twice or three times the length of the voyage from Asia) "amount to 43. per cent. of the crews. British masters and owners under ordinary con- ditions profit by such desertions, as in some cases from Australia."

But the accounts recommended to be rendered can never be satisfactory, as they cannot be checked, and an unchecked account is valueless. It is to be hoped that power will be taken to deal with desertion for- feitures as the effects of deceased seamen are dealt with. Then there would be fewer desertions, and the popularity of the British

2

We again submit that ar

المعا