Sir Joseph Ward and the Strike.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14908, 23 February 1914, Page 6

Sir Joseph Ward and the Strike.

The portion of the Winton speech which will be read with most interest is Sir- Joseph Ward's attempted defence of his conduct during the general strike. Wo regret very much that his laboured explanations left matters exactly where they were before, and the public ivill be more than ever convinced that Sir Joseph Ward failed lamentably in.his duty as a statesman on that occasion. The very foundations of Jaw and order in this country were seriously, threatened. For over a week Wellington had been in tho hands of a mob, arid the police were powerless. The "Red Feds. , ,' had declared war on the rest of tho community. Obviously, in such a crisis the Leader of the Opposition should have placed himself actively on the side of the ■ Government, sinking all part, differences, until law and order had been completely reestablished. Sir Joseph Ward say 5 that directly the position arose a meeting of the Liberal Party took place, and they unanimously decided to do nothing to embarrass the Government. What was wanted on such an occasion was not mere lip service, .but practical co-oper-ation and support. Sir -Joseph Ward may not, at the time, havo fully realised the probable effect of his action, but certainly the- course he himself took at one of the most critical periods in the whole struggle was decidedly calculated to embarrass the Government, and has been almost universally condemned on that account.

Sir Joseph "Ward's reference to the subject makes it necessary that wo should recall the circumstances. It was on October 30th, the day after the special constables from the country began to arrive in "Wellington, when the Government for tho first time felt it -.vas safe to make some attempt to rescue Wellington from tho control of the mob. Only the da}- before one of the strike loaders had been adjuring his followers to "fight like hell," and a very dangerous situation had arisen. As some mounted special constables were riding through the streets . they were assailed with insults and abuse, detonators were thrown among the horses, and some of the constables were struck by stones, lumps of coal, and in one case a bar of iron. Tho troop then turned to clear the Post Office square, and three men were knocked down in tho charge. Tho same evening Sir Joseph Ward referred to this matter in the House. He explained that ho did not see what took place, that he. was acting upon hearsay evidence, but he, said his information came from "responsible citizens" of Wellington, and he assumed throughout that what they said must be true. As a matter of fact it is evident tliat he had been primed by some of the strikers or their friends, and he gave an altogether misleading impression of what hud taken place. Hβ referred to " citizens who had gone to see the posi- " tion" being "galloped over by cavalry- " men from the country"; of constables "losing their heads," and he added that this sort of thing was likely to provoke a very much worse state of things than then existed.

"I was assured," he said, "upon coming in hero just now, by a man who was president of one of the unions connected with the waterside workers—l do not know his name—-that until this display of batons he was able to keep

absolute peace among the members of the Union, and he assured mc that what was done acted upon those men in a very extraordinary way. Men who .spoke to mc this evening after I left here assured mc that they saw what they did not believe was possible to have occurred in this country. They gave mo their assurance that it acted not only as an incentive on tho men who are engaged in this unfortunate strike, but one of them told mc something which I really do not think I ought to put on record publicly, because he gave an indication of what he would have done, and it was something which, upon cooler reflection, he would probably not like to have made public. *. . Having had this matter brought before mc I think it is njy duty a* a public man to say that "while* we all want to see this strike ended—and in my opinion every reasonable effort should bo made to have it ended —if wo are going in this unfortunate matter to have incidents of this kind occurring, that there will bo bloodshed in the city is certain."

It is, true that scattered through this extraordinary outburst aro statements that Sir Joseph Ward and his party were - 'on the side of maintaining law "and order in this country." But could a more mischievous speech, one more likely to embarrass tho Government in their efforts to restore order havo been uttered at that critical juncture? No attempt was apparently made by enquiry from both sides to find out tho truo facts of the case before presenting this oneTsided statement to the House. If Sir Joseph Ward thought there was anything wrong, why did he not try the effect of speaking io Mr Masecy in private about \* before making such an inflammatory speech in public? Tho natural inference is that ho wanted to curry favour with tho '"lied Feds." and to gain their votes. Ho certainly allowed himself to be used for tHo purpose of giving to their misrepresentations of facts and their threats of bloodshed a weight and importance which could never havo been attained without his help. And for Sir Joseph Ward to

come forward now with an attempt to belittle the crisis through which tho country has passed to say that "tho " strike could and should have been

'prevented," and that "when em- " ployers and representatives of the " Labour Federation could not agree it "should have been settled in a day," is n piece, of effrontery which wiil deceive no ono. and will certainly disgust every thinking member of the community. The men who made real sacrifices to restore the authority of the law will bo esiocially able to appraise at its true value this attempt to belittle their services to the community.