There are approximately 900 Indian Guards employed at a cost' to the shipping companies of some, £270,000 per annum. Neither owners whose property is at stake, nor officers whose lives are at stake have the slightest confidence in them. Their training is inadequate and their discipline is bad and their bad discipline affects the discipline lof the other members of the crew.
These guards although nominally on the ship's articles are paid through the police and consider themselves fas police and resent receive lorders from the ship's officers. lan appendix hereto a number of ca is quoted, showing the bad discipline and inefficiency of, the Guards, This list of eases is by no means exhaustive but merely illustrative of the matter rai this paragraph. the opinion of both the (as it is the lly accepted view all the world over) that the master of a vessel should have complete control. over all members of his crew at all times when the vessel is at sea, and it i felt strongly that the police element should be entirely eliminated and that any regulations or assistance received by a ship in the British Mercantile Marine should come from ithe Navy and in certain matters from the Harbour department and mot from the police. Whilst in port. ithe Indian guards ler themselves as being off and they take no. part in searching the people who. come on board whilst the vessel is. in port. It is the unanimous o} lof ship owners and officers that the Guards could and should be dispensed with from the ships.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.