Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/84

76 interests of discipline, for what does a sailor care for a paltry five shillings when he has his "monkey up?" What does he care for the fact of being logged as required by the regulations, when he knows quite well that the matter does not end there? These affairs make such people more obdurate than ever.

Why, if the occasion requires it that an offender has been fined for some breach of discipline as intended in the regulations for maintaining it, is the shipmaster's action to be revoked at the instance of an official who may, or may not, be an impartial judge of the case on its merits? If these regulations are intended to give the shipmaster some power over his crew, then his action in the matter should be effective and final. Is it to be suggested that the average shipmaster is incapable of dealing with a case of discipline fairly, in such matters as carry against it a whole five shillings fine? Is he not fit to discriminate between the fair and the unfair, or could he only make use of it by abusing it? Or is it to be assumed that in disciplinary matters the Board of Trade is ever present in spirit during the voyage, and that therefore they alone are competent to deal with such momentous and weighty questions? The powers provided by statute are, perhaps, ample for the average shipmaster's requirements if he were only permitted to exercise them in a suitable way. There would likely be much less trouble on the whole, if these rowdy characters who disturb the peace and make for disorder wherever they go realised that the master of the ship they serve in is a person to be considered and respected as such, and that any dereliction of duty would be dealt with by him, and that the matter ended there. For the grosser offences, 'the law, properly administered by those whose duty it 1s to do so, is quite sufficient to maintain order in a service that has been hopelessly treated in the best interests of its own people in the days that are past.

A few weeks ago, at the Three Nuns Hotel, Aldgate, the leaders of the Seamen's and Firemen's Union foregathered for their annual dinner and meeting to discuss their affairs. Regarding the alleged falling off in the supply of British-born seamen and their intractableness, one of the speakers, in voicing the opinion of the meeting, openly declared that the cure for it all was to pay the men better, feed the men better, house the men better. There is nothing new in these utterances, for such has ever been the war cry of the Union from its earliest inception. If you want discipline, get British-born seamen, pay them well, and treat them well. There are plenty of them if you are prepared to pay the price, says an eminent critic of things nautical, while placidly suggesting