On October 26 in consequence! the Seamen's Union duly presented their claim to the Chairman of the Shipowners Committee: who invoked the sistance of the Secretary for Affairs in its consideration, 'A. test case showed-at once that accounts entered in the bill for pre-settlement half pay had already been paid and witnessed by representatives of the Union: and immediate enquiries from few important companies revealed the fact that the shipowners generally had duly discharged their liabilities in this connexion. Normal conditions had been restored withia-a few days of the strike settlement, and no complaints had been received from any quarter of the refusal of owners to pay. pre-settlement half pay; note from the owners concerning any! difficulties over the manning of! their ships: and none from the Seaman's Union concerning seamen unemployed after the strike. There was no reason to doubt the! generally accepted impression that the settlement had restored normal] conditions of employment, that, the owners had observed its conditions, and that at most only a very few seamen could have remained to become a charge on the post-Settlement Fund.
"Purely Imaginative"
In these circumstances the Chair-mar of the Seamen's Union was informed by the Secretary for! Chinese Affairs that his bill of some $340,000, which included half-pay for thousands of seamen for the whole of both the pre-settlement and post-settlement periods was} purely imaginative. The two parts required division: and rather more precise evidence of liability would now be required than would have been looked for in the original if it had shown any reasonable relation to accepted facts. was recognized as not impossible that there might still be cases which would become proper charge on the post Settlement, Fynd: and perhaps a few cases (such a those of ships at ea) where pre-settlement payments may have been overlooked, but post-settlement unemployment. pay fin this latter class of case clearly could not appear. The Union Oficials were informed that any case which they could produce showing] prima facie a sound claim would be dealt with without delay under the Agreement: and were urged to proceed with all possible expedition the matter, if only in the interests of the seamen themselves.
No further representation on the matter from any source has been received in Hongkong: and it desirable to make known the facts here given to correct distorted views of the matter which have been allowed publication.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.