A Charter for Seamen
Mr. Bevin was right when he insisted last Wednesday thit he quarters of merchant seamen on board ship should be as good as possible and comparable with the homes they expect to have ashore. If the standard in fact is far lower, and the men live often under slum conditions at sea, that is in great measure due to competition between maritime countries in the carrying capacity of ships. It is only, then, by international agreement and the international enforce- ment of standards that a real remedy can be found. Here is work for the International Labour Office, and it was at the Joint Maritime Commission of the I.L.O. meeting in London that Mr. Bevin was speaking. He naturally recalled the incalculable and insufficiently realised services which have been rendered by the Merchant Navy in this war—by those 120,000 men who, as is well shown in the just published official record, Merchantmen at War, have been work- ing in all the seas of the world to keep this country and her allies supplied. On the Commission now sitting are representatives of both the seamen and the shipowners, and their first task will be to
consider an international charter dealing with such questions as wages, hours of work, training, periodical leave, and an improved
standard of accommodation. When such a charter is framed it is important that all maritime nations should accept it, and that, having done so, they should enforce it. It may be impossible to achieve com- plete parity in conditions of service, but reforms can only be carried through by a levelling up all round.
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