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taken of the powers granted by the Act of 1894, and that by-laws had been made.
Before the close of the following year 97 houses were under inspection in the
following districts:—
Poplar 32 houses with 474 beds
Stepney 64 „ „ 1,165 „
Woolwich 1 house „ 26 „
Provision was made under the by-laws for licensing, but this was optional,
and it was not until 1907 that the first licence under these by-laws was applied for
and granted to the German Sailors' Home.
Considerable difficulty was experienced in enforcing these earlier by-laws.
Many of the keepers were foreigners with a scanty knowledge of English. The houses
were mostly let on weekly tenancies. There were constant removals, and the keeper
was under no obligation to notify a change of address. The principal difficulty,
however, was that many of the houses were old, worn out, and quite incapable of
being reconditioned.
The experience of these first few years showed that the only satisfactory method
of dealing with the premises would be by way of annual licensing. After correspondence
with the Board of Trade, new by-laws were approved on 1st January, 1910,
and on 19th February of the same year, an Order in Council was issued making it
an offence under a penalty not exceeding £100, to lodge seamen unless the premises
were licensed by the London County Council.
The first result of licensing was to reduce the number of houses from 80 to 37,
some ceasing to exist because they were unfit, others, occupied by Chinese, because
they were affected by the by-law prohibiting opium-smoking and gambling, and
were closed for this reason.
At various times difficulty was experienced in deciding what was a " seamen's
lodging house." The Board of Trade was advised by the Law Officers of the
Crown as follows :—
"We do not think that the reception of a single seaman constitutes the
house a seamen's lodging house within the meaning of the Act; there must be
something in the nature of a course of business, and whether a house is a seamen's
lodging house is a question of fact in each case."
A little later a further point arose as to what constituted a seaman for the purposes
of the by-laws, and, the old definition under which a seaman ceased to be a seaman
after 4 weeks ashore, was amended as follows:—
"Seaman means any male person other than the holder of a certificate
of competency or service as master, mate or engineer in the merchant service,
who is ordinarily employed in any capacity whatever aboard ship."
The by-laws now in force date from 1917.
During the War, owing to torpedoed crews being sent to London from all parts,
and shipping being held up for considerable periods, the boarding houses became
crowded with seamen of all nationalities. Many of them had to be housed and fed
in common lodging houses and the cheaper hotels. After the Armistice, it was some
years before things settled down. The depression in shipping and the objection
of the trade unions to coloured seamen having preference over white, resulted in
many hundreds of Arabs, Somalis, Malaysians and West Indians, being left
derelict. Many were found in a starving condition ; the Council communicated
with the Board of Trade, and whilst the official machinery was being set in motion,
the British and Foreign Sailors' Society stepped into the breach and fed and housed
them until they could be placed on board the ships provided for their repatriation.