To the Editor of the Nowrit-Cnixa Datty News""
Sit—There appears to have been 'a certain amount of correspondence: in your paper re the lives of Mer: chant Service officers on the China. Coast. Although my ship has! been in port.a considerable time,! swe have been lying at anchor miles! away from anywhere, and your! Paper of yesterday is the first have seen for some time. This} issue contained a letter signed "A Ship's Officer's Wife," and if] I go off at a tangent not keeping to the subject under discussion, my! excuse is that I have not seen former letters on the same subject.
Th the first place let me aay, how ageecshly surprised Tam, that you! Rive allowed your. correspondence Columns tobe opened. to tush a discussion, When first I came out! here I was burning with a desire) {owrite the papers about the wrongs (fancied or otherwise) the coastal service had to put up. But! fu old anit" fold me the' people!
Shanghai didn't "give a hang about us, and that anyway " no paper would publish our "grouse' for fear of losing their shipping ad-_
"A. Ship's OMeer's Wife" finds dimeute to mate both ends meet, Sir, isn't that simple statement! fervible? If that lady had: married n'man of no eeation, or with "professional training, we would Rave sympathized with her. But, look at the type of man the ship-! ping. compenice manage to get ect Keret" Although' the. Merchant Service is democratic enough. to raw its oMtcers from all classes as, Jong as, they can. pass. thei, special examinations—yet the ma-Sonty of them ave. either publi dehoo! boys or are drawn from the ug colleges Pangbourne, Wer-ror Conway. Thave placer Of course cost unsuspecting parents boot the same ax if they had sent their boys to Dartmouth to. bee tome Naval ottoers: On tap of this initial expense, officers are] going In for exaravations "up figes of 20/80 or even later, which means throwing' up one's ship for periods to go ashore and! study. And after all this, I can-for rik the little git] at home: to there my lot. For ake and Arould have' to. exist on from $200 to $300 a month. How can I bring! hee to Shanghai, without providing her with the society and" class home' she is ured to? Surely ever dinicers of the. Merchant. Service Sone to have' salaries nuclentt6 Gntble them to. marry und keep UP edetnlte local tang, If you can apore me alittle more of your valuable. space, there a Shodter aspect that elves me ence for wonderment and. amusement Why" does the average Shangh Petkient took upon ne "ahlppers beyond the pale?
Everyone on the tells me. the same thing. Mutual friends at{ Home tell them to look up so-and-80 who has a "shore job" in Shang hai. They do so—but only ones. The atmosphere of that Shanghai house is too uncomfortable—its. below freezing point!
'This feeling starts in our own, shipping otices. Instead of taking' a pardonable pride in being go-ahead firm, we slink in to the office, as if we were necessary evils, and of much less use than a first: year "pen pusher." Take my own ease: I was sent out here 2nd class—the clerk in the office travels first class. In company with four or five more, I arrived at Shanghai about 5 pan. None of us knew' Shanghai, nor where our office was. Policemen, firemen, missionaries, mill workers, all had people down to. meet them, but not us. Oh dear, ro! Not even a chit with instructions, Well, we got tin rough on] the phone to the office—all the Europens had faded away—and they' had left no instructions. We put} up at a hotel that night, and reported to the office in the morning. We were received with a grunt, nothing more, not even offered a chair, or a wish expressed that we would like it out here. To add insult to injury the Company refused to Pay our hotel expenses, when we were loft stranded the—previous night. The next few days were spent in shifting from to ship sav to save hotel ex-before being appointed to proper ship. Is it any wonder} officers are dissatisfied and leave chen their contracts are finished?
Right from the beginning they are up against everyone.. The average ship's officer loathes going into his office. He often waits. all day— there is no system of sending up one's name—and as.I have said before, the ordinary office courtesy of offering a chair is withheld.
But perhaps all this is "jus retribution." In the days of my] youth the Head said: "Brown, don't go to sea, look here, as a last resource I'll get you in' a bank." But I went to sea, and when a3]
midshipman I floated around in uniform (not in 2 company's livery) T looked with patronizing air and pitying eye at the-"duds" the "old man" as a "last resource" had got into offices. But all that is altered. The clerk in the shipping of. fice treats me to a supercilious smirk and says, "We are shi you to one of on other ships.'
Ard as for the bank clerk, well, can you wonder at him feeling} superior? As he sees me crawling into the awe-inspiring premises of the Bank, he knows that but for] his watchfulness my account would be overdrawn each month.
But joking to one side, the people of Shanghai have a lot to answer for. I only see one bright spot, and that is the Blue Light of the Mission to Seamen with its unselfish workers of true ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately its} influence hardly touches the officers of our coastal ships. Its} naturally lies to the "home where it keeps in touch! more with the young apprentices and men of the lower deck.
was speaking to a chum I had not met for years the other day He used to be a jolly laughing boy. now he is a cynical youth at, the age of 24, He has beer out here ship for two and a half} years, and has not spoken to a white woman the whole of that "Am T my brother's keeper?" You probably say you are not. Thiz letter has not touched you—if you are irritated, given furiously to] think, then it has served its purpose must thank the Editor} for insert Thanking you for your forbearance, Tam, ete,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.