Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/79

71 conditions. That they have been enacted with the laudable or plausible intention of affording the most ample protection to a class that the State should ever be keen to cultivate may be taken for granted. How well they have succeeded must be judged by the rapid increase in the Lascar invasion plus the foreigner generally, who now exploits the British merchant ship in open competition with the men of native birth. Other times, other manners. It is not so long ago that the laws of the land provided for hanging the man who stole a sheep, and also other affairs which nowadays are considered very minor offences. Is the Merchant Shipping Act, then, to be likened unto the laws of the Medes and of the Persians that alter not? The times have changed, and with them the men. If the regeneration of the merchant service is a possibility of the immediate future, then the shipmaster, who is more than any other person responsible for its efficiency in so far as his own particular ship is concerned, must have proper support both from shipowners and from the State. At present they have not; consequently the most flagrant breaches of discipline are allowed to go unpunished and unchecked, owing entirely to such cases as do see the light being submitted for adjudication to those whose duty it is to administer the law, but who mostly fail in their duty to the State, owing to the general, erroneous idea that obtains that the poor hard wrought sailor is a person to be pitied and protected in every possible way. The moral effect of this on a service containing many thousands of men is very far-reaching, but the more immediate effect is to render the men concerned incapable of being handled satisfactorily, except in those ships where the conditions of employment are good and above the average; where the voyages are short and regular, such as in the mail services and liners generally; where the remedy for misconduct is a sure dismissal from the ship on arrival and from all similar vessels for ever after.

It may be taken for granted that the merchant service, as | it 1s now, is not, nor can it possibly be, a nursery for the Royal Navy. Whether it be or not the proper recruiting ground for the Navy in time of war is a matter which the State will do well to consider now in the piping times of peace. That shipmasters, engineers, and more particularly marine superintendents, are a greater power for good or evil on the manning question than either conscription or subsidy—as we remarked some pages back—is a statement that must be taken with caution, inasmuch as the opinions of shipmasters and engineers are rarely—very rarely—enquired for by shipowners in matters