176 CHAPTER XI. 
those most recently discharged, and having the crew selected on an 
arbitrary system which might give a miscellaneous crew. The Committee 
also recommended that bribery, whether indirect or direct, to obtain 
employment as seamen should be regarded as a serious offence punishable 
with a considerable term of imprisonment. 
Action on Committee’s Report. 
The main object of the scheme was understood to be the eli- 
mination of the bribery which the Committee believed to exist on an 
extensive scale, and attention was concentrated on Calcutta where the 
abuses were said to be much more serious than in Bombay. From the 
start the scheme met with a large amount of opposition and criticism. 
The difficulties in the way of preparing a register were serious, and it 
was felt in many quarters that it would be impossible to restrict, in the 
manner contemplated by the Committee, the power of the serang over 
the selection of his own crew. After protracted discussion with the 
local Government and other interests, the Government of India ap- 
pointed in 1924 an officer of the Mercantile Marine as Shipping Master 
to re-organise the Shipping Office at Calcutta, and instructed him to 
examine the question of the establishment of a recruitment bureau. 
They considered that it would beinadvisable to proceed further with the 
recommendations of the Committee until the Shipping Masters had 
gained some experience of the system of recruitment and had made some 
progress with the registration of seamen. At a later date an assistant 
to the Shipping Master was appointed at Bombay to deal with the ques- 
tion of recruitment. 
Orders of Government. 
In 1929 the Government of India issued their orders on the 
recommendations of the Seamen’s Recruitment Committee. Under 
these orders, which were framed after consultation with the shipping 
companies, the leading ratings (i.e., serangs and butlers) are recruited 
either direct by the shipowners or through the Shipping Office. A 
broker must not be employed in any capacity in the selection of these 
men, and the companies undertake that preference will, as far as 
possible, be given to men who have been longest out of employment . 
The Shipping Master has no power to interfere in the selection, but we 
are informed that, as far as possible, the shipping companies endeavour 
to honour this undertaking. Recruitment is made through the Shipping 
Office where shipowners or their agents are unable to make the arrange- 
ments necessary for the registration of their men. The Shipping Offices 
maintain employment registers of serangs and butlers ; the shipowners, 
their agents or the ship’s officers select their men at an open muster. 
Here, too, there is no compulsion, but it is stated that in practice an 
endeavour is made to give preference to those longest out of employment. 
In the recruitment of lower ratings, there is no interference or control. 
The general practice is for the serang or butler to produce candidates in 
excess of the number required and for the Marine Superintendent or the 
ship’s officers to select from the men thus produced.