Page:The Blight of Insubordination.djvu/96

88 he would like to have. It will probably have a direct effect upon their membership which will not be to their benefit, as time may show. Any alteration of the Lascar's terms of agreement, as in this case, where it has always till now been stipulated "that the said crew (Lascars) shall not be bound to serve on voyages to any port in the Baltic, or any port on the east coast of America north of 38 deg. N. lat.," would be certain of provoking much criticism in the Press, and the Syren and Shipping of September 10, 1902, in commenting upon it in reference to what had appeared in the Morning Leader in its "World's Work" column about the British sailor and the Lascar, says:

Quite so! Common fairness to India demands that the Lascar shall receive different consideration in the matter to the deserters from foreign flags who abound in the British merchant service to-day, even though we have not men of native birth to fill—except on their own terms—the places the foreigner occupies as readily.

Some of the large shipping deals that have been brought about lately may be safely expected to be the means of bringing the Lascar more in evidence than ever, for the astute commercial men who control these groups of what were formerly several distinct lines, will not be slow to make full use of the advantages possible with the Lascar-manned steamer. With their usual acumen in ordinary business affairs, the marked difference will be too palpable for them to neglect, for the ordinary terms on which Lascars are engaged make it both as possible and probable, unless free trade in sailors should be made a thing of the past.