The Red Duster at War. By Warren Armstrong. (Gollancz. tos
" MECHANICS? Benches? Farms? Factories? Dammit, sir! If Bri had no merchant seamen there would be NO agriculture labourers—no benches—no farms—no factories—no progre NOTHING! " And since that is so, Mr. Warren Armstrong cheerf but decidedly declares in this book of his that the Merchant Na —the men who sail under the Red Duster—must be better treat after the present war than after the last. His book is really an out tract, or piece of lively pamphleteering. He has been a seaman self. He knows how seamen live, talk, work and complain—h legitimately they complain. There are good and bad owners, from the bad owners he quotes letters that make one jump wi their meanness. He shows how pay and conditions and hours dro men off the seas before the war ; and now they are back he sho how grimly they stick to their essential and extremely dangerous He tells some good and moving stories of heroism by officers merchant seamen ; and then asks if men who can do such things be left again to rust, like their ships, when this war is over. He as from his trade union standpoint, for no more than justice and h decency—for no more than will be given, so we are told, to all an of all creeds, sections, levels and nationalities, when this war is wo And certainly it is a war which cannot possibly be won witho merchant seamen.
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