OCCASIONAL NOTE

Coming on the top of the short-lived strike of the river surveyors, the comment of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce in a recent letter to the Government of Bengal that the present acute shortage of leadsmen for the pilot service “constitutes a serious menace immediately affecting the very existence of the port” is hardly calculated to reassure the public mind as to the working of the port services.

“It is known,” remark the Committee of the Chamber, “that the men are in a very discontented state, and are looking for employment elsewhere.” It is also known that discontent has been rife among the surveyors for years, and that affairs have before now reached a critical stage.

There is a good deal of force in the contention of the Chamber that the pilot service, intimately connected as it is with the administration of the port, should, like the other services so connected, be directly under the Port Commissioners, and not under a separate authority.

At the same time, the chronic trouble with the surveying staff suggests that the mere transfer of authority will not in itself place the pilot service on a satisfactory footing.

The Chamber, as a body of business men, place their finger on the main difficulty when they remark that the terms offered to the leadsmen are no longer sufficiently attractive, and should their recommendation as to higher salaries be acted upon in the case of the leadsmen, as it probably will be, it will be very difficult to resist the claim of the surveyors for a review of the conditions of their service.

BURGLARY IN LINDSAY STREET

The Taltollah police received information of a burglary in the shop of the All India Hosiery Manufacturing Co., Lindsay Street, on Friday morning, and the theft of several warm jersies, penknives and sundry other articles. It transpired that the shop was opened as usual yesterday morning and on the proprietor entering his office, he found some burnt matches, and three new penholders lying on his office table.

One of the huge wooden doors in a south room had been forced from the hinges, and sufficient space made to allow a man to enter. A parcel of red woolen fisher-caps, which he had packed the day previous, was lying torn open and its contents scattered about the room.

At the entrance to the room, he found a new penknife, and in his office several boxes which had contained medical instruments were found empty on the office table, having been moved from a side table near by.

On the office table was the proprietor’s cheroot box lying open, the thief having apparently helped himself to a few. Burnt matches were lying on the floors of the other rooms, thus indicating that the thieves had moved about lighting matches and searching for valuables.