The Press Friday, March 10, 1922. The Rand Strike.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17400, 10 March 1922, Page 6

The Press Friday, March 10, 1922. The Rand Strike.

The cable messages of the last two or three days have dealt with a serious development in the grave troubles which have paralysed the great mining industries of the Transvaal since early in January. Towards the end of last year the Chamber of Mines decided, in view of the high working costs and the diminishing value of gold, to reorganise the system in the Rand gold mines. At the same time the coal-mine owners, the Victoria Falls Power Company and the Engineers' and Founders' Association mado proposals to the unions concerned for reductions of wages as from January Ist. Early in December an abortive conference was held to discuss certain drastic proposals of the Chamber of Mines to obviate the permanent closing down of the low-grade gold mines owing to high working costs. The scheme which included the abolition of certain trade union restrictions regarding the employment of nntives, was turned down by the minors who submitted counter-proposals involving a roduction in the number of highly-paid officials and a cO-partner-xhip scheme. Subsequently the South African Industrial Federation recommended the workers to vote for a strike, the issues bring described by them in the hallos paper as follows:

The following ultimatums have been delivered bv ths coal owners, : the Chamber of Mines, the Victoria Falls Power Co., and the Engineers' and Founders' Association: —, 1. The refusal of the coal owners to arbitrate on the proposed reduction of wages. ... x 2. The Chamber of Mines' threat to substitute cheap black labour for white. 8. The alteration of underground wbrkinor condition (contract system). 4. The refusal of the Victoria Falls Power Co. to continue tc- > negotiate with <he workers on a basic rate of wages. ■ , ■ - , 5. The threatened breaking of the ngreemenb and reduction of wages bv thf Engineers' and Founders' Association. ,

Tho strike, which directly affected over 1000 white miners and- 20,000 natives, began <m January. Ist,'and work in Jail the mines -was Drought to I a standstill, and two days later the qentral; strike' jhad declared for a fight to 'i finish, withdrew all the men previously permitted to continue pumping the mines and Regarding-the wageß cpesr ;tf(^fa,R^^ propnetort said tnai'wages of per shift'were being offered to the men. They complained of the "constant ..in- ■■■" terferenoe taking place in the' man"agement of the gold and ooal mines "by extremists," aud they expiessed their determination to prevent the coal mines being >xoughi "to t the same condition as ms>ny of the low-grade gold mines, '/hey further- pointed out that on January 4th there were in Delagoa Bay eleven steamers waiting for 80,000 tons of ooal, and the agents of these ships had decided -to send them elsewhere. The coal owners stated that-the loss of the oversea coal trade was a,very serious matter for the country, and .could.not fail to, he reflected by the employment of fewer Europeans on the-railways and at the seaports. Hopes of an early settlement of the strike were dashed to the ground during January by the fail.ure of two conferences befcween' the 'affected parties. A, new turn was given to the dispute early in February, when a big meeting of strikers enthusiastically adopted a resolution moved by Mr R. B. Waterston, e member of the Legislative Assembly, affirming that the time' had come to put an end to the dominance of the Chamber of Mines and'other financiers, and urging that tho members of thea in Pretoria should' proclaim a republio and establish a provisional government. -This proposal was coldly received by other Nationalist and Labour members, and came to nothing. During the next few days a number of extremists were arrested on oharges of incitement to violence, and it was significant that from thence onward serious outbreaks became very frequent. The strikers, 80 per cent, of whom are Dutch* men, were organised into, commandos, and when attempts were made to reopen some of the mines with free i labour, they abandoned much* of their earlier restraint, and acts of intimidation and violence have since produced numerous conflicts wth the police. The latest move by the Industrial Federation—the calling of a general sympathetic strike—has, so far, not met with l any serious response, nor apparently is .it likely to do ao'. The most serious feature of the situation at present is that, according to General 3muts, the organised workers are losing control, which is now largely in the hands of /the hooligan element. In addition to dynamite outrages on the railways, .there have been wanton'attacks on natives, and it looks a> if the Prime Minister will be compelled to make good his statement that stern measures will be taken to prevent anarchy and mob rule. •