SEAFARING HOLIDAYS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I read with great interest your article on the above subject in your issue of July 14th. No doubt the number and variety of cruises make a strong appeal, but I venture to suggest that if any one steamship line were to announce that its servants on its ships were strictly forbidden to take tips, and were to enforce the rule, that line, other things being even somewhat less than equal, would fill its ships before its competitors. As one engaged in the business of passenger shipping, I am constantly being asked what is the right thing to do in this matter. Take a cruise, e.g., for a fortnight to Norway. What is a passenger to do ? Mani- festly his berth must regulate his tipping. A steward with four or five expensive rooms to look after is not in the same position as one with nearly a dozen, and the wealthy pas- senger must act accordingly. But plenty of people take such a cruise who must take minimum rated berths, and to them the question becomes vital. I know of those who turn down the idea because, while they could manage the fare, they are afraid of the addition of the tips. I know a man who told me that on a five months' World Cruise he spent £80 in tips. That, for him, was about 20 per cent on his fare. It would cost slightly more on the cruise fares, no doubt, but the enterprising company which should start the non-tipping would win all along the line.
Tipping, per se, is usually a comparative trifle, but on steamers it has become a heavy and substantial tax on the passenger, and one that weighs heavily on the less wealthy
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