MARCH BROKEN UP

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 132, 16 March 1948, Page 3

MARCH BROKEN UP

Queensland Police Use Batons EFFORT TO CIRCUMVENT LAW (N.Z.P.A.— Copyright). BRISBANE, March 15. z A inarch which was broken up by the Brisbane police with batons is reported to have been a well-planned attempt to circumvent the anti-picketing law recently passed by the Queensland Government. It was led by Mr Michael Healy, secretary of the Trades and Labour Council, and Mr G. C. Englart, State secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, both of whose names had been taken previously by the police because of demonstrations outside the Shell Company oil depots.

To-day a smaller force of police that on previous days waited outside the depots, but reinforcements were soon rushed up. A hundred pickets, led by Mr Healy and Mr Englart, massed nearby and marched towards a depot bearing Communistic slogans. On being warned by the police, Mr Healy said tile men were not picketing but were holding a political demonstration.

After passing the depot, the men turned and moved towards the city, being joined on the way by others who emerged from side streets until they were 400 strong. Police reinforcements met the strikers on a main shopping corner at Fortitude Valley, where a determined attempt was made to seize all the banners and placards. A running battle ensued as the strikers broke through the police cordon and the police raced down Wickham Street to intercept them. One heavily-built striker stood on a placard as the police tried to pick it up. Others closed with the police, and still others, when approached, tossed the placards they were carrying to men behind. Thirteen men, including a barrister, union secretaries, watersiders, and railwaymen, appeared in the Police Court to-day charged with breaches of the new anti-picketing laws. The cases were adjourned. Among those charged was a Communist barrister, Max Julius, who appeared for some of the defendants, and was himself represented by Mr F. Paterson, a Communist member of the State Parliament.

POSSIBLE MORTAL BLOW ENGINEERS ORDERED TO RETURN (Rec. 11.45) BRISBANE, This Day. The action of the Queensland branch of the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Engineers in ordering its 2300 members to report for work to-day is considered possjbly as a mortal blow to the central disputes committee. Trains running yesterday carried 20,000 passengers, mostly on suburban linos. Nevertheless, the chairman of the Queensland Labour Council’s Central Disputes Committee, Mr M. O’Brien, predicted in Melbourne that the strike would continue for several weeks. Two major airlines have discontinued special air freight services owing to the increasing frequency of trains, and so it is expected that only R.A.A.F. “Biscuit Bombers” will remain in tlie field. '