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Australia, yet since that time the Orient line have been smitten by the Lascar fever, in the stokehold and the engine-room department! Did not some of the Irish members of Parliament endeavour to elicit from the Orient Company the dates on which specific charges of either drunkenness or insubordination occurred, which was stated to be the reason for making the change, and for their trouble got little or no information? We saw the R.M.S. Ophir arrive in Colombo Harbour a few weeks ago (about March 19), and we feel sure our Aryan brother was in evidence on deck while she was mooring, though they were not occupied in doing. anything towards it! In regard to that famous ship and her historical trip, it was well, for the harmony of that voyage, that her old crew of firemen were not retained, as intended in the original arrangement, but were changed for firemen of Naval training, only shortly before the voyage commenced. Was it not on the subject of their refusing to be vaccinated that decided the change? It was well they showed their hand early; it would have been much more awkward later on! That trip down the Red Sea was made under the most favourable conditions in the worst part. Going south with a fresh S.S.W. breeze, the temperature of the air eighty degrees and the sea eighty-four degrees, passing the Zebayir Islands on April 4, 1901, the firemen would be having, comparatively, a rosy time. This i is somewhat of a digression, so we return to the matter of opinions of shipmasters on the question of sailors, or rather of crews. Those we have quoted are collected from the liners in the Atlantic trade. We are concerned with the Eastern trade, where Lascars are employed almost exclusively. Without going exhaustively into the matter to analyse the weather that mostly prevails on these trips, but just guessing, it may be comforting to the timid passenger to know that, taking the year all round, the Indian trader only spends about one- eighth or a little more of the time in bad weather, and this not generally of a severe kind; so there is not much scope or demand for the special "stand-by" business. If inquirers would really like to have opinions about discipline the Royal Albert or Tilbury Docks on the Thames, or the Toxteth, Harrington, Morpeth, or Wallasey on the Mersey, will afford ample opportunities to get the best of information on the subject. The masters, mates and engineers of the steamers manned by Lascars will, we are sure, be quite ready and willing to explain on the spot in what way their lives are made more bearable—made, in fact, worth living, such as it is. In these matter-of-fact days self-defence goes for something, and to justify one's job is a thing to be considered, for this is an
