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.