Union S.S. Co. Beset By Politicians

And Traitors

Our freedom was won and our Empire was made, By our men and our ships and our overseas trade.

A LT HOUGH everyone concerned has urged the need for haste in dealing with the Pacific shipping problem—i.e., the undermining of the unprotected Union Company (British) by the heavily subsidised Matson Line (American) — the Commonwealth Government appears to have done no more than it has done during the past two years—which is pre cisely nothing. Mr. Lyons, in Septem ber, promised that there would be a con ference with the Matson Line, but no more has been heard of the plan.

The Melbourne “Age” has been criticising the Commonwealth Govern ment sharply for its inaction, and the Prime Minister has been questioned in Parliament about his plans. But he seems to have no plans. At any rate, no information has been made available to the Parliamentary questioners.

Meanwhile, the Union Company has been subjected to another attack, of

another and more treacherous character.

There was a strike of waterside workers in Vancouver; and, after it had dislocated coastal shipping, it was broken by the formation of volunteer labour corps, which worked the ships. The crew of the trans-Pacific liner Niagara was held up on October 11, at the moment of sail ing from Sydney, with a full passenger list, by a demand from the crew that the Co. give a guarantee that non-union labour would not be allowed to work the ship at Vancouver. The Co., of course, could not give any such undertaking; and so the ship was tied up, and the pas sengers transferred to the next outgoing Matson liner.

It is bad enough that this great Pacific pioneering company should be left by indifferent governments to meet single handed the subsidised competition of America, in the manner described; but it is a national tragedy that the Company is not protected against the traitorous activities of the Australian Seamen’s Union.

One expects competition from foreign countries; but one does not expect, while fighting that competition, to be stabbed in the back by the people and the organi sations to whom one looks for support.

It would benefit all British interests in the South Seas if certain numerous gentlemen of the Australian Seamen’s Union were placed in a line against a wall and summarily shot. They are a menace to good government and indus trial peace, and they are a growing danger to that freedom of the South Seas that is guaranteed by British Imperial influence. The best that can be said of them is that they are too stupid, and too intoxicated with their own politico economic nostrums, to realise what they are doing. What they are doing —in so many words —is to gravely weaken, at home, certain Australian and New Zealand shipowners who already are hard pressed in the field of international competition. When British shipowners are driven off the seas, the end of the Empire will be in sight, and the restless gentlemen of the Seamen’s Union will have something to squeal about.

The Union Company, in the Central and Eastern Pacific, and Messrs. Burns, Philp and Co. in the Western Pacific, have not only established a great trans port business, but also have done a

splendid Imperial job of work by carry ing the Red "Ensign to every islet and beach the Equator, and, through guaranteeing regular services, by estab lishing British communities throughout the Pacific territories. It was in such manner that British ships and British enterprise won the British Empire; and it is the possession of the Empire, and all it means, that allows British people to enjoy a high standard of life, and freedom to work and organise for a still

higher standard.

But when concerns like the Australian Seamen’s Union proceed to attack the Union Co. in the way described, and when, owing to some footling argument on the Australian coast, they hold up the Burns Philp Pacific Islands liners, it is clear that freedom has been turned into license, and that anti-British treachery is being practised. One does not blame directly the rank and file of men who serve on the ships; but, indirectly, they are responsible, because they allow their union to be controlled by a gang of pot bellied loafers whose one myopic aim is to “break down the forces of capitalism by creating everlasting trouble.”

If the Australian and New Zealand Governments had any vision, and any real. sense of responsibility as the guardians of the British flag in the South Pacific, they long ago would have aban doned this semi-apologetic attitude towards foreign competitors and domestic traitors, and would have seen to it that the shipping companies which carry their flags into distant seas are adequately pro tected and supported. It may or may not be that the companies pay dividends that are too large and wages that are too small. That, surely, is a matter for inquiry and regulation at home, before the proper tribunals.

The plight of the Union Steamship Company to-day, beset abroad by the merciless competition of powerful foreign interests, and ceaselessly harassed at home by anti-British Communist agita tors, can be read only as deplorable proof of the feebleness of these pleasure jaunting, shilly-shallying Australasian Governments. Our publicists are very busy, in these days, crying maledictions upon the name of Mussolini. Can one imagine Mussolini standing idly by allowing some big organisation carrying his flag to be torn to pieces between ruth less foreign interests and the mad dogs of Bolshevism? Has a century’s resi dence beneath the South Pacific sun sapped our Australasian nations of their finest British qualities of strength and aggressiveness ?