The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1942. The Waikato Strike

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23752, 25 September 1942, Page 4

The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1942. The Waikato Strike

Both the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, and the Minister of Armed Forces and War Coordination, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, are insisting anxiously that the Government’s action in taking control of the Waikato mines is untinged by socialism. “The contro- “ vcrsy now being engaged in by “ many people as a result of the “ stoppage of coal production in the “Waikato,” says Mr Coates, “has “ arisen over a misconception con- “ cerning the degree of Government “ control which is proposed.” Mr Coates is raising what is for the moment a side issue. Most people are agreed that, in the present emergency, the Government should take any measures which may be necessary to maintain output in an essential industry. If it is convinced that only under State control can volume and continuity of output be maintained in the Waikato mines, then it should introduce State control. Mr Webb touched on the real issue when he asserted that “ the decision [to bring the mines “ under State control] has not been “ made at the demand of the “ miners.” The assertion is difficult to believe. Nor does Mr Webb make it more credible when he says that “regulations providing for “ State control of the coal mines “ had been drafted a week before “ the men raised the question.” Mr Webb in effect asks the public to believe that it was mere chance that the miners’ demand for State control was followed immediately by the Government’s decision to introduce State control. He will not succeed in dispelling the impression that in fact the two events are closely related. In any case, the question whether the Government allowed itself to be coerced into putting the Waikato mines under State control must not be allowed to obscure a much graver issue raised by the Government’s handling of the strike. A week ago, 182 of the Pukemiro miners were sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court in Hamilton to one month’s imprisonment ' on charges of taking part in an illegal strike. Those men are still at liberty. They are at liberty because the Government has interfered with the course of justice. That is bad enough; what makes it very much worse is that, two days before the Pukemiro miners were tried, the deputy-cha/rman of the War Cabinet gave an assurance that those who broke the law would be dealt with “ fearlessly and firmly ” and that there could be "no “ thought of any arrangement that “ interferes with the processes of the law. . . .” By going back on that statement the Government has brought itself into contempt and has shaken public confidence in the impartiality of the administration of justice.