I.W.W. AGITATORS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16358, 1 November 1918, Page 3

I.W.W. AGITATORS.

■ — " CLEANING UP HUGHENDEN. (fhom ocb owx coerbsfondknt.) SYDNEY, October 23. i The little town of Hughenden, it* Queensland, is closing the brightest and most sparkling week of its existence. lt has been discouraging a band of I.W.W agitators and disloyalists who. had made their nest thore. The methods pm- ■ ployed havo been drastic but effective. The rapidly lengthening trails of the. disloyalists who have-just left the town . would, if painted on a map, make Hughenden look like the centre of a ! spider's web. Hughenden is still celebrating: the orgy will not cease until > the last disloyalist has "folded his > tent." : New Zealanders will remember some- : thing that happened at Waihi some r years ago—how the townsfolk,; driven to-distraction-by., petty- strikes. andjni dustrial turmoil, rose furiously . orfe morning, and literally chased the ■ agi- • tators out of the town and far over the ' surrounding hillsides. The Hughenden affair is very like that. The disloyalists bccamo moro and moro noisy and • confident, and tho townsfolk kept quiet a and said nothing. Then came a "beer • striko." The publicans raised .the ; price of beer, and tho extreme, uniohj ists refused to buy it or the barmaid a - to sell it. The publicans discharged » the barmaids. The unionists tightened the boycott, and' demanded the reinstatement of tho barmaids. They alfio 3 tried to prevent anyone entering. the '' hotels, and employed cave man methods • to ■ enforce - their- wish. • Out of-this ! foolish quarrel, ■no one knows • how, b there developed a bitter war between 4 loyalists and disloyalists. Apparently, • tho extremists insulted and attacked ' some returned soldiers, and all v tlio • other soldiers and tho decent-minded townsfolk arose in revenge. In a'little - while, there was fighting all over" the • town. The soldiers were kept, out of it as far as possible, and the towns--3 folk set to work to root out the 1.W.W., £ men, and the more prominent disloy-' I alists. The system was .to warn a . man - 5 to "get out." If he refused,, ana" • stayed, he wa.s thrashed to tho point L of 'severe physical injury. There .was s rioting in all directions, but the fights I went generally in favour of the loyal- " The Queensland ' 'Bolshevik" Govern^ Q ment mast be held responsible for all 3 this. Its querulous, anti-British, paci- .• fist attitude on all matters relating, to;> • the war has greatly encouraged the dw- ■ 3 loyal elements, who appear publicly *n n a manner they, would .never.dare adopt > in any other part of . the Commonwealth. 8 Manv American vaudeville performers e are entertaining United States soldiers " m. France. Among other official 'ml- structions the performers are told/to. n avoid bombastic songs and dialogue* .td c * men who have learned a spect for the enemy's fighting dualities; [' to omit "fight-for-home-and-oojintry a stuff" to men who do not want civilian >. advice; to avoid""drink" jokes toymen a who are, many of them,, abstainers while they ftro soldiers; and to eschew jokes of questionable taste, and, above " all, \iokes offensive to women, when "absence from home has surrounded women in the boys' eyes with, ft fefiti--3 ipoatal lialoj", -