20th May. Errorts are made at home from time to time by persons whose private interests it serves to pose as "Seamen's Friends," ete. to discourage the employment of lascars in the steamers trading with the East, in order to find berths for supposedly neglected British seamen. The P.
Company, standing out as it does by its size and wealth above its compeers, is the constant mark for these agitators, and the fact that it receives annually—for services well rendered—a very large sum of the British taxpayers' money is supposed to be a special reason why it should employ as many British taxpayers as sible, it being always studiously ignored that the lascar is just as much a British taxpayer as the born British seaman. The latest complaint against the P. & O! Company in the House of Commons has been that the poor lascars are defrauded of their proper amount of air on P. & O. steamers, a complaint. perfectly ridiculous to those who know the facts, and especially to those who know how much cubic space the lascar has in his home' on dry land. Of course, this is really only'a side way of attempting to drive the lascars out of the steamers altogether. Fairplay in a recent issue reprinted a memorial on this subject presented by British shipowners to the Government.of India in 1895. It was dated Calcutta, the 4th of February, 1895, may mention that it was signed, among others, by the Superintendent jof the P. & O. Company, and the agents of the Harrison, Clan, Brockle-bank, Anchor, and City lines, and of the British India Company. Dealing with the question of the space allotted to each lascar on board their ships, the memorialists say It must be obvious to those acquainted with the conditions under which jaties live on shore that the accommodation at present and for the last 35 years provided on board shi for lascar crews is by com-arisen with conditions in the crowded huts in the bustees in which they live and from their habit of huddling and crowding together, that the accommodation provided on board is vastly superior, added to which on board ship they have the advantage of pure air and an ample supply of good and pure water, owing to all of which advantages it may safely be asserted that the conditions in which lsear crews live are infinitely superior to those which obtain on Tt has been ascertained by ies carefully compiled by one of the principal steamship lines, that " the rate of mortality amongst the Asiatics (native crews) is less than that of any class, Europeans excepting the senior atticers.""
One other paragraph we must quote from this memorial, as it goes to the root of the agitation If, as we assume to be the case, the proposed legislation is about to be undertaken at the instigation of the new Inbour unionists with the object of replacing Asinties by lish Seamen, we would beg to point out that this object must inevitably fail for we much regret to say that so little protection is afforded to the shipowner against the strikes and generally unsatisfactory conduct of English crews that it has hitherto been found utterly impracticable to carry. on the steam trade with the East by vessels manned with such crews, and in the event of it being found impossible, in view of the impending legislation, to continue the employment 0 Asiatics, their places will be filled by scandinavians, Italians, Maltese, Malays, Chinese, and probably' a large number of West Indians, who are not only first-class seamen but amenable to discipline both at sea and in port.
In a very interesting letter to the London Zimes, dated Monte Carlo, the 10th of March, Sir Thomas Sutherland recapitulated some of the arguments employed in the abovementioned memorial, and gave a very interesting history of the employment of lascars in British ships. He referred to the old and_ splendid Indian "country" ships, which were manned exclusive lascars, with European or Manila steersman, ships which were among the finest schools of seamanship in the world. He referred also to the coasting trade vessels in India and China, which were similarly manned, and to the well-known opium schooners, which were handled with man-of-war smartness, and were among the finest craft afloat. Before the opening of the Canal, it was impossible to man the P. & O. steamers east of Suez except with lascars, and after the Canal was opened, it was fonnd, to the surpris: of all concerned, that the lascar stored up enough caloric
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.