Ship Strike

With the threatened strike of Britain's coal miners just settled (TIME, Aug. 10) by a subsidy to the mine operators, a form of settlement which even labor leaders are denouncing, a new strike broke out.

Recently, British ship owners and seamen's unions agreed on a wage reduction of -L-1 a month for British seamen. The seamen in a number of ports last week repudiated the action of their union officials. Ships were tied up in the Thames and at Southampton. But other seamen were found ready to take their places and in most cases there was only a day's delay in sailing.

In Australian ports similar strikes were called by local meetings, and there the situation was more serious. It was reported that all shipping at Melbourne and Sydney was tied up.

In some quarters the opinion was expressed that Communists were making a concerted drive against British shipping throughout the world, since this strike followed on the manifesto of the Canton Government against British shipping (See China).

-Ramsay MacDonald has said : "The Government pitiably mishandled the problem. . . . . In the end the only things that could happen did happen. As in the decaying days of the Roman Empire, victorious invaders had to be bought off, so peace has now to be purchased by spending taxpayers' money."