TRANSPORT SERVICES, - 177 
Improvements Effected. 
Although the licensed brokers and other intermediaries have 
not been abolished, as recommended by the Seamen’s Recruitment 
Committee, their powers, have been curtailed. They are no longer 
given any voice in the selection of the higher ratings, and it is no longer 
customary for them to supply the lower ratings, except where vacancies 
occur immediately prior to a vessel's departure. But in Calcutta 
the greatest improvement has been in connection with the system of 
advances to seamen at the time of recruitment. Formerly, a seaman 
recruited through a broker received from him a hand-note, usually for 
one month’s pay, of which half was not payable until some time after the 
ship sailed. The seaman who needed the money in cash had to pay a 
substantial rate of discount to money-lenders or others to secure this. 
Advance notes have now been abolished, and the broker is required to 
pay to the seaman, when signing on, the full advance in cash of a month’s 
wages. For this he receives a fixed commission from the shipping com- 
panies. 
Extent of Bribery. 
The evidence we received on the question of the prevalence 
of bribery was conflicting. The seamen’s representatives were unani- 
mous in the view that there had been no improvement since 1922 ; on 
she other hand, the Slupping Masters and the shipping companies 
were of opinion that, whilst bribery in recruitment had not altoge- 
ther disappeared, it was by no means serious. It was even mains 
sained by the companies that the picture drawn by the Seamen’s Recruite 
ment Committee was exaggerated. It was not possible for us to sift the 
truth from these conflicting statements, particularly as we had been 
supplied with no figures that could be compared with those collected by 
the 1922 Committee. But the present system represents an improve- 
ment in method on the old one, in that, if properly worked, it will 
ring the employer and the employed a stage closer together than was 
the case when the brokers were responsible for engagement. But it 
does not seem to us to be designed to remove one of the basic causes of 
bribery, namely, the large volume of unemployment amongst seamen. So 
long as this remains, the temptation to offer a bribe is not likely to be 
diminished, and, quite apart from its connection with bribery, the 
teduction of unemployment appears to be essential if labour in this in- 
dustry is to be placed on a satisfactory footing. 
Unemployment, 
The present conditions are in large measure the result of the war 
which, by increasing the demand for seamen’s labour, led to a large in- 
crease in the supply. After the termination of the war, the demand fell 
rapidly, with the result that the number of seamen was far in excess of 
the openings available. The Committee of 1922 drew attention to the 
serious unemployment then prevailing, and, as we have stated, its recom- 
mendations were so framed as to encourage practically continuous em- 
ployment to a limited number of men. We do .not think that these