How They 'Strike' in Poland.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 156, 2 July 1892, Page 9

How They 'Strike ' in Poland.

Accounts received recently from eye-" witnesses of the recent labour disturbances a b Lodz, in Poland, throw a lurid lighb on the lawless state of affairs prevailing there during" the riots. For a time, indeed, the town was in a condition of absolute anarchy, murder, robbery, and violence being perpetrated in every condition. Nob content with plundering and wrecking many manufactories and workshops, , the strikers in many instances murdered both the factory owners themselves and the book-keepers againsb whom the rioters had a special grudge, as being considered to a great extenb responsible for the refusal of the owners to concede the men's demand for a ten per cent, increase in wages and a ten hours' working day. The subsequent attack on the Jewish quarter is described as having amounted to a regular massacre of the unoffending Israelites, whose residences and business premises were given over to plunder. In T cendiary fires broke out in aFI parts of the city, and ib is declared that but for the devotion of the local official and private fira brigades the whole town musb have been burnt down. The damage done was so great that many manufacturers have been reduced to bankruptcy by their losses. Fora long tjrme the inhabitants were panic; stricken, and nob only was all business at a standstill, bub travellers were unable to continue their journey, being afraid o£ leaving their hotel. ...... s; , /,:'■'?' ;; The alarming character of the disturbances may be gauged from the severity of the measures taken to restore order. Strong reinforcements of troops were drafted into the town, and a state of siege was proclaimed. General Gourko, the military governor, telegraphed from Warsaw that the soldiers should use ball cartridge, and that no mercy should be shown to the rioters. It ig added thab the troopa on several occasions fired on'the mob, and that rioters who were- arrested are being conveyed out of the town in hundreds under military escort.