Daily Mail: British Navy drops custom of employing Chinese servants on warships over fears they may spy for Beijing
* It comes after MI5 spy chief warned China is trying to steal Britain's nuclear technology secrets from Britain
The British Navy has dropped the custom of employing Chinese laundry workers on warships over fears they may spy for Beijing, according to a report.
Hundreds of Chinese laundrymen have worked on British ships since the 1930s, but the majority were taken on from Hong Kong to wash and press sailors' uniforms and officers' white tablecloths.
Read more ....
Update #1: BEIJING BAN Navy ditches custom of Chinese servants on British warships over spy fears (The SUN)
Update #2: British Navy dumps 90-year-old Chinese laundrymen tradition (Next Shark)
WNU Editor: These Chinese laundry workers will be replaced by Nepali Gurkhas .... British Navy replacing Chinese laundrymen with Nepali Gurkhas to prevent spying (First Post).
I also wonder if this "Chinese ban" will extend to other services/departments in the Royal Navy.
13 comments:
"I also wonder if this "Chinese ban" will extend to other services/departments in the Royal Navy."
hopefully, but of course probably 20 years later than should have been the case
Instead of coming up with a better vetting process just dump people who haven't been proven to do anything wrong.
Kinda good to end a racist tradition. Kudos.
It was just hiring locals from a common port of call.
The fact that they wound up switching to men from a landlocked nation means the thought process was apparently: "which of these other races that we formerly owned can we get to do this now".
Make it about racism you stupid bitches.
It is about economics, the lost cost bidder.
If a country is poor the labor costs are probably lower than those of most other countries. DERRR!
Carrier I was on got painted in Hong Kong in the early 1990s. Why? Because it was cheaper there than any other port in Japan, the US west coast, The Phillipines, Singapore or the Arab Gulf.
The only good comments was 7:06's comment.
It was not about who was darker. Filipinos probably are a tad bit darker on average than Chin3se. It was about cost.
Is 8:38 an information space warfare comment? I tend to think so. How are the ethnic Rus treating ethnic Central Asian in the Russian Federation? Shitty. Cannon fodder for Putin's War
"British Navy drops custom of employing Chinese servants on warships over fears they may spy for Beijing"
/gee. ya think?
The two ratings in the US Navy with lowest ASVAB scores are mess specialist (MS) and ship servicemen (SH). The regular and danger pay is the same as other rating although the reenlistment bonuses and other pay obviously is not. The US Army has service battalions that take care of laundry.
The US Navy started this in 1943. SH's are now called retail (RS) service specialists. Feminists? Could not leave well enough alone. Like the job or hate the job, the job gets you foot up the ladder you can go up several steps and take advantage tuition assistance in the Navy college program. In short it is a viable route into the middle class especially for minorities who were purposefully underserved by Democrats.
You can argue about E4 pay being a livable wage or enough for a family especially in a port city. Some years it s and some years it is privation due to the lack of base housing or the economy. A Democrat would love to debate it and would entirely miss the point. E4 is a temporary way station.
Fusion is so right. Why not hire British folk.
Ouch--incisive comment.
And also--won't these gurkha warriors tAke offense at having to do menial work?
oh common
folk?
@11:05
I was sarcastic, but since you called me stupid: it's still a racist tradition, it's the definition of racism. But you choose to take what you want out of this article. Of course it's out of fear of espionage.
The Americans use to have Filipinos in the same role. That ended at the start of WW2, I think. I will have to look it up.
It has more to do with who is in your empire and poor than racism. There is probably some of the latter, but trust me whites look down on other whites. The Chinese out of Hong Kong were in the empire longer (1999) than say anyone from Africa. That ended by the mid 1960s.
I should have been more specific in my remark. I know you are not a troll.
The We are the Mighty article is worth a read.
From stewards to leaders, the evolution of the Filipino-American sailor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_services_specialist
"With many of these men coming from poverty, a job with the US Navy presented a better prospect than what they could find in the post-war Philippines. "
Filipinos considered themselves made, when they get in the service. From the article there was equality of pay, but there was not equality of opportunity (rate) until 1971.
I think it is more about poverty and price than racism.
Price?
There are sailors who checkoff list in Hong Kong include getting a very nice, tailored 3 piece suit very, very inexpensively. It was known for it.
Yes, price!
90 Year Tradition
That goes back to the 1930s. WW1 changed a lot in England between the upper and lower classes. Add to it the depression. After WW1 the country estates did not have so many workers and people were not so deferential.
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