TO FIGHT COOKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1928, Page 7

TO FIGHT COOKS.

AUSTRALIAN CRISIS.

Federal Ministry Takes Grave

View. NO SIGN or SETTLEMENT. (Received 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. There is still no sign of a settlement of the marine cooks' strike and the deadlock in shipping continues. The Marine Stewards' Union has decided to call a meeting of the transport group of unions, to be held in Sydney, to discuss the position with a view to a settlement. The West Australian and South Australian Governments are requesting the Commonwealth Government to suspend the Navigation Act, which will enable overseas vessels to carry passengers and cargo round the Australian coast during the cooks' strike, which is proving disastrous. Mr. Bruce, in a statement, declared that the Government had already indicated that it recognised its obligations to maintain the essential communications. The Government had so far refrained from taking action in the hope that the Australian Trades Union Council would be able to discipline the union responsible. It had now become a question for serious consideration whether the Government would be obliged to take action almost immediately.

The shipowners propose to make the Union Steam Ship Co.'s Loongana, the cooks of which yesterday gave 24 hours' notice, a test ship to decide whether the other maritime unions are going to support the cooks' strike. On Tuesday an effort will be made to man the vessel without cooks. The owners would supply the passengers with cold meals and other suitable foods, to be cooked in Melbourne by strictly union labour only. This will place on the martima unions the onus of either accepting or rejecting engagement on the vessel. The president of the Council of Trades Unions has issued a statement appealing to the Arbitration Court to intervene in the dispute.