Indian Tailor-Shop

Workers Want European Sympathy

From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, Sept. 25.

TWENTY-SEVEN employees of Indian tailoring shops at Suva have signed a letter to the Mayor of Suva (Mr,

Alport Barker), appealing to him both as Mayor and a member of the Legislative Council, to support the claims of tailoring workers to have the Labour Department fix maximum hours of work for them, as well as for other workers.

All the signatories stated that they are Fiji-born. They complain that during the war, when it was impossible for the Gu jerati tailors to import young Gujerati workers from India, employers fell back on Fiji-born recruits, but that as soon as direct ships again began running between India and Fiji, local employees began to be displaced by Gujerati newcomers. The new arrivals, it is said, are more amenable to working a 12-hour day than are the Fiji-born Indians.

The present complaint is the latest of a series, mostly made in the English language Press in the last three years.

There is no question that more or less sweated labour conditions exist, openly or secretly, in many Indian establishments, but the employers appear to have a water tight system of stalling Government in terference. The Labour Department has previously admitted its inability to cope with the problem of the tailoring workers, even though it has tacitly conceded the justice of their case.

The appeal to the Mayor ends with an expression of confidence that although Mr.

Barker “represents the Europeans” he will see that “every possible step is taken to make things run more smoothly.” The significance of the fact that Indians make such appeals to European representatives rather than to their own political leaders is interesting to followers of events in Fiji. A team of amateur athletes from Auck land, NZ, will probably make a short tour of Fiji in November or December. They have been invited by Southern District Athletic Association of Fiji.