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21. It would be impossible not to feel great regret if we thought that foreigners are driving out British subjects and compelling them to join the ranks of the unemployed. We do not think that this is so to any material extent. It is very difficult to ascertain precisely the facts, although we have taken great pains to do so. Many authorities (especially the superintendents of the Board of Trade) believe that there are not enough capable British seamen to man the mercantile marine, and that for the competent British seaman no lack of employment exists. Other persons do not agree with this view. We think that the truth probably is that for good British seamen in the prime of life employment is seldom lacking; but that for those who are only imperfectly competent, or whose best days have past, the competition of the foreigner is a serious matter. We see no means by which such competition can be, even if it should be, prevented.
22. But there remains further the feeling of regret, not the less real, even if it be based on patriotic and even sentimental rather than on strictly economic grounds, that by a great increase in the number of foreign seamen in its mercantile marine the characteristics of the British as a sea-going race should gradually deteriorate. It is impossible to regard such a change with acquiescence or equanimity.
(ii.)
28. We consider, therefore, what, if anything, can be done to attract the British population to a seafaring life. First, can sea service be rendered more attractive? We are well aware that its hardships in many respects are unavoidable and irremovable, and we do not fail also to observe that to increase attractions to British subjects is to increase them in at least an equal degree to the foreigner. Still we think it is desirable to do what can be done to ameliorate the lot of the British sailor in order to induce young men to take to and remain at sea.
24. The most hopeful course relates to improved food and cooking. What is inaccurately known as the Board of Trade scale is usually, if not invariably, inserted in articles of agreement. In most cases it is not adhered to, except as a punishment or in answer to complaints. But we do not think it is sufficiently ample or varied. Various scales exist; one was framed by a committee appointed by the Shipping Federation in 1892, which it was proposed by the Merchant Seamen Provision Bill of 18938 should be made a statutory minimum scale; another has been drawn up by the Seamen's Union, and two competent witnesses—Mr. William Service and Miss Effie Bell—were good enough to submit scales which would, in their opinion, be satisfactory. (Appendix P, Nos.1-8.) We have considered these scales, and a sub-committee of our members has, after careful consideration, drawn up the scale which is printed as an appendix to this report.
25. We think that this scale should take the place of the present conventional scale which has hitherto been inserted in articles of agreement.
26. We hope that this scale will without compulsion thus become universal, and, at least until it has appeared that such a hope is ill-founded, we do not think that it should be enforced by legislation.
27. Cooking is a matter to which many competent witnesses before us have attached the utmost importance, and which we have no doubt in many cases, at present, falls far short of a standard that might be reached.
28. We recommend that after a lapse, say, of three years a certificate should be given by the Board of Trade, based on the certificate of competent schools of cookery, to persons desirous of acting as cooks, and that a qualified cook should be carried by every foreign-going vessel of 1,000 tons gross register and over, such qualification consisting of either such a certificate as is above mentioned or the possession of certificates of service for two years.
