3,000 MEN FOR THE DOCK BATTALION

THE PLAN OF SELECTION

The Times (London) Sat 3rd April 1915

Much enthusiasm continues to be shown for the Liverpool Dockers’ Battalion, and although formal enlistment does not begin until next Thursday the number of men who have already come forward would fill the battalion three times over. The battalion will consist of picked men. Of late years the decasualization of dock labour has proceeded apace in Liverpool, and the institution of the clearinghouse system was a great step forward in this direction. Hence while many of the Mersey dockers, of whom there are over 30,000, are content with the wages earned in two or three days, the proportion of steady workers is increasing, and it is from these men, ready for and accustomed to continuous work, that the battalion will be formed. The opportunity of obtaining a guaranteed wage of at least 6s a day appeals to them strongly apart from the question of patriotism involved.

Those sections of the dockers who are inclined to grumble particularly with reference to the khaki uniform and military control, are among the least likely to be enrolled in any case, and their arguments are largely nullified by the safeguard of trade union principles inherent in the scheme and the fact that enlistment in the battalion, as the union officials are insistently pointing out, is purely individual and voluntary. The union branches are not recruiting stations for the battalion. The sergeants will appoint the corporals, and these, from their knowledge of the men, will choose the privates. Of the sergeants already appointed three have had military experience Mr McKibbin, who is vice president of the union, was wounded while with the Scots Guards at Ypres. Mr Keefe, president of the union, is a veteran cavalry man and Mr D O’Hare belongs to the 8th Battalion Liverpool Regiment and saw service in South Africa. He has been training for some months with his battalion at Canterbury.

It is expected that a considerable proportion of the Birkenhead dockers will return to work tomorrow. Although there was plenty of work to be done today not a man turned in. The action of the Dockers’ Union, however, in threatening to suspend the branch if the men persist in defying the union is expected to have a good effect.