Needless to say, the very nature of the conditions
caused it to fail. In the first place the parents of the
boys looked upon the proposal as a form of conscription; and
in the second, owners would have no truck with a partial
abatement of the light dues. They very properly claimed that
the charge should be abolished altogether. All other
countries, except America and Turkey, have made the lighting
of their coast-lines an Imperial question; and America only
levies it against British shipping as a retaliatory measure.
Mr. Ritchie lost his chance of doing a national service by
neglecting to take into his confidence shipowners who were
conversant with the voluntary system of training seamen. Had
he done this, it is pretty certain they would have guided
him clear of the difficulties he got into, and his measure
would have been fashioned into a beneficent, workable scheme
instead of proving a fiasco.
There are shipowners who believe that it is the duty of the
State to pay a subsidy of twenty to fifty pounds per annum
for every apprentice carried. I have always been puzzled to
know from whence they derive their belief.
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