The following statement, which has been sent to us by the secretaries of the China Coast Officers' Guild and the Marine Engineers' Guild of China with a request that we accord it full publicity, deals ix a comprehensive manner with the whole question of the reduction by 10 per cent, of the salaries of the eck: and engineer officers of the China Navigation Company, which earn 10 effect on April 1 after a partial hold-up of ships, the officers returning to their chips in response to an appeal by Sir Sidney Bi barton, HM, Consul-General in Shanghai. Serious assertions are made by the officers regarding an alleged laxity of cipline among the Chinese ratings of the ships, which the officers state is due to the Company's policy of pampering its Chinese employees, We now desire on behalf of our: public a brief history covering the Pan eels a Guilds to accept the salary reduc-caused a cumulative 3 ing up ite services, with result that ime for" rear been seriously "This is only one Navigation Company, together with hai, returning to duty on their On September 15, 1926, the coins tu 5 Tet the ana, wing patlenay borne, with ing to. conserve. the best Interests of the Company, and
In other" walks ang the rates of (Buropenn. pay manifest that. the absolutely the worst the China Coast same time giving three months'
Belt eat cet this salary cut were partial dislocation of some of the Company's (e) Te is therefore permissible to postulate that the reduction the wages of the European staff wil Rot improve the position' since anak aifoee the oot of the. ait can ly serve to lift a art of the financial burden ing 50, mit final most favourable conditions, due mainly to the fact of the command decrng, by the Chinese military of Rieamers' controled bythe. China ically the wi river
Merchants' Steam Navigation Company. Also, the middle river vessels Of the China Navigation Company, when not running on their usual
tonnage to meet lower Te-serves, Wo must lower Yongise quirements. The Company's public Statement that: "seven of the Company's coasters and six upper river Steamers have been out of commis sion since June and October 1926 is misleading. Five of the const boats referred to have been sold to Japanese interests, thus leaving but two of these vessels on the Company's hands and the prospect of the sale of these vessels is not remote. Also the Company's statement that "other vessels have been laid up for varying periods due to lack of employment" is offset by the fact that many of these vessels were relegated to an anchorage above the Arsenal simply until such times asa berth was clear at the Company's wharves for loading purposes and were not, therefore, in the strict sense, laid up. Tt must also be borne in mind that coastal vessels of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company had been idle since November 30, 1926, and are still laid up, this ctor undoubtedly reflected itself} favourably on the coastal tonnage operated by the China Navigation Company. With regard to the southern routes, recent personal investigation elicited that the China Navigation Company's vessels are maintaining a full service, the Hongkong-Swatow-Bangkok line being particularly marked in this respect, numerous prospective native
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.