QUAINT STRIKES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 6

QUAINT STRIKES.

Stew is said to have caused a mutiny in the 22nd Regiment, of the Czeeho-'Slovakian army. It appears that the cook declined to give thorn any choice of dishes, and rather than eat the stew provided the men chose to go to prison. It was in vain that the officers endeavoured to demonstrate the inherent good qualities of the cook's efforts by eating large quantities of the stew themselves. The nien. would have none of it. Recently ■ there was a somewhat similar strike in Australia against free meals provided by.a charitable organisation for the unemployed. These free , meals ■were, declared "black" because they consisted of boiled mutton and potatoes. A queer strike once took place at one of, K the largest of the Cambridge colleges. The undergraduates ihad to pay 2/1 for their dinner in hall. They considered • that they were not getting value for their money. It was rumoured that a large firm of contractors had offered to supply the same dinner ior eightpenee, The undergraduates therefore refused to dine.in hall and fed themselves in their own rooms. But the peculiar part of this strike .was that they still ■had to pay the 2/1 for the dinner they did not eat, and the cook, against wQiom the strike was taking place," made a rich harvest out of it. On a mining field in Australia soine of the miners went on strike for higher .pay. There were also several men working claims as partners on shares. Some of these went on strike out of sympathy, though they themselves were the sole losers and stood to gain nothing by any success achieved by the strikers. A cook was once responsible for a strike on a vessel in Australia which was only settled by the "tact of the captain. The firemen said they would go on strike unless the cook •was dismissed, and,the stewards threatened to go on strike unless the cook was retained. The captain called a.meeting of both parties to the dispute, while the cook stood apart as an interested spectator. As a settlement could no£ be reached the captain asked for time to consider the matter. He tihen gnve the cook a , pound with leave to go ,ashore. The cook spent ihis pound so unwisely that he fell into the hands of the police and was locked up. The captain thus jhad no alternative but to engage a new cook, and the incident ended happily for all concerned. ■ One cannot help wondering whether in the case of the Czecho-Slovakian.army the stew was , lrish.