FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14857, 24 December 1913, Page 10

FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

STATEMENT BY EXECUTIVE. IN DEFENCE OF MR W. T. YOUNG. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TEtEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, December 23. The members of the executive of the Federation of Labour who are in Wellington made the following statement to-nlay concerning the calling off of the strike: — During th© currency of the strike, repeated assurances, they said; had been given by the Federation Executive that no settlement of a sectional character would be effected. It was maintained all the time that any settlement arrived at with the employers would cover all engaged in the struggle. Despite this assurance a seational settlement was arrived at by the seamen without the consent of the representatives of the other bodies involved. Although the delegates attending the meeting in Wellington held for the purpose of discussing the position knew that negotiations were in progress between the seamen's delegates and the shipping companies, nevertheless the repeated statements of tho teamen's representatives that they would not bo parties to a sectional settlement; were accepted in all good faith.

Acting upon this, the plans of the conflarenoe were arranged. "It is simply ridiculous," the members of the Executive say, "for Mr Smith, of the Dunedin Seamen's Union, or any other person to state that the Federation decided to call tho strike off on December •15th. The statement is not true. There .was no resolution to call the strike off until after the seamen had decided to return to work. These are the facts *s disclosed by the official records. "We claim that we were not treated fairly by the seamen's delegates. We feel still> further that in acting as they did, these delegates did not represent the fooling of the seamen of. New Zealand."

Since tho decision of the seamen necessitated immediate action so far as the watersiders and others wero concerned, tho delegates, together with the Federation executive, on ISViday, December 19th, passed a resolution to call "tho striko Off as from tho 20tb inst. Since that timo there had been a: tendency, on the part of certain people to shoulder the responsibility for calhng off the strike upon the shoulders of Mr W. T. Young. "W© want to say," add the executive, "in all fairness: to Mr Young—and we would hero intimate that the whole of this statement is made without his knowledge or consent—that he has given us to understand that in negotiations with the employers and the subsequent decision to sign a sectional settlement for the seamen, he was not a party thereto During the whole course of the disputo Mr Young was as emphatic as any other inerc.ber of the executive that a sectional agreement would Ijh mo-st un-de-urablo. We accept wit'iout equivocation, the assurances of Mr Young tliat he did not know of "..he intention of the Auckland and Dunedin Seamen's delegates to sign off the strike irrespective of any other group of workers, including even the Wellington seamen, until Mr Jack, of Auckland, informed Messrs Hickey and Dowgray of the intention-on December 19th. Such being the case, we believe a very Ijrave injustice has been done to Mr Young. We make this statement, believing it to bo true, and to clear from the name of one who has fought long in. the Labour movement, condemnation that we feel is not deserved."