DIFFICULTIES AND REMEDIES 



cran, and at Scarborough /J15 was paid, but at that 

 port this price did not continue. Several of the 

 drifters at Hartlepool and Scarborough earned ^350 

 for one night's fishing, and as much as £1,500 for 

 a week's fishing. Throughout the district the men 

 had done very well, especially the motor boat men, 

 who had earned large sums ; and the danger seemed 

 to be that in a good many cases, with fish fetching 

 such fabulous prices, the men seemed to stick at 

 nothing. 



In a discussion which followed the reading of the 

 report Captain Johnson said he thought that 90 per 

 cent, of the mone}' earned by the skippers should 

 be taken from them and given to the men who were 

 fighting for the country ; they had no right to the 

 whole of the money. What about the mine- 

 sweepers, who made the sea clear for the fishers ? 

 Alderman Moss said that the men who had earned 

 this big money had been fishing off Iceland and the 

 Faroes and had got safely through. Other men had 

 lost life or limb, and their earnings were not stated. 

 There were two sides to the question. Some men 

 had laid down their lives in bringing in food for the 

 people. Captain Johnson then remarked that many 

 others were running the same risk in connection with 

 the commerce of the country, and were getting 

 nothing from it ; and another member observed that 

 be had no doubt that the Inland Revenue would get 

 hold of the successful men. 



What the Inland Revenue authorities did in these 

 matters was not known ; but the law generally had 



203 



