Old sailors’ tales
John Lewis considers the role of economic factors in improving working conditions
Howard Wright’s article (‘Talking Point’, 14 January) has carried me far away. There used to be a plaque in the docks in Calcutta that recorded an extraordinary feat: the loading of 10,000 tons of coal in twenty-four hours, during world war two, in 1943. The plaque did not explain that this herculean effort was accomplished by about 1,500 men and women, equipped only with baskets on their heads. I doubt if their motivation was patriotism; more likely it was the desperate need to earn money with which to feed their children.
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