2 MAY 1941, Page 5

Are fishermen, I wonder, actually earning the fabulous sums attributed

to them? A naval officer writes this: " I had a crew of patrol-service men, all fishermen. Their elders, still fishing, were earning as much as £80 as deck-hands for a week's fishing. I have no idea how many weeks they would get like that in a year, but, as one man said to me about his father, ' He's getting too much, Sir. It isn't good for him.' " It may be argued that the fishermen fathers' work is a dangerous trade in these days and so deserves high pay. But it is not half as dangerous as their sons', which consists mainly of mine-sweeping.

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