DRASTIC ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 15, 17 January 1914, Page 5

DRASTIC ACTION.

REGXETTED BUT NECESSARY. ORDER ON THE RSEF. I Received 10 a.m.) < APETOYVN. January 16.

Tjie authorities at Pretoria inform Rftitor's agent that in consequence of the events .'.'. Benoni. v.liero dynamite was used, some hundreds of strikers were placed under arrest yesterday. This drastic art ion was neressilated by the extremes to which the strikers went in July and because on the present occasion they were the only bodies of miners to go on strike in r. wholesale manner. Another reason was their interference with the police. The authorities hope that similarly drastic action will not be neiessarv in other parts of the Reef, but in view of the strike being a breach of the law and the firm determination of the authorities to restore, law and order. they will not hesitate to act with equal severity whenever the necessity arises.

A message from Pretoria says that the Government has decided that the burghers who responded to the mobilisation order shall be allowed to retain, without payment, the rifles issued to them during the present crisis, so long as they remain members of a defence force rifle association.