QUEENSLAND STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25447, 19 March 1948, Page 7

QUEENSLAND STRIKE

Protests Against Police Action

MOST N.S.W. MINES IDLE (Rec. 9 p.m.) BRISBANE, March 18. Brisbane was tense to-day after yesterday's elaeh between police and strikers. Police were posted at straleelc points, while the strikers held a meeting. No further disturbances have been reported.

Michael Healy, secretary of the Brisbane Trades and Labour Council, was fined £2O in the Police Court to-day for having taken part tn an Ulegal procession. On the same charge lour other men were remanded for a week. With most of th* New South .Wales coal mines already idle in protest against the police action in Brisbane, powerful unions are considering a nation-wide stoppage. Meetings in many centres to-day condemned the attitude of the Hanlon Government to the strike and demanded the repeal of Queensland’s anti-picketing laws. The Miners’ Federation threatens a general stoppage, and the miners’ president (Mr I. Williams) has warned that “if the strike-breaking legislation is not repealed a Commonwealth-wide dispute seems imminent.’* Only nine New South Wales mines are working, and the loss of output is estimated at 40,000 tons. The Federal executive of the Wateriiide has >e *°

undated with protests, some demanding a 24-hour nation-wide stoppage. The Melbourne district committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union has asked the Commonwealth council of the union to extend the Queensland strike to other states. South Australian ironworkers are holding a series of half-hour stop-work meetings of protest.

“Planned Fracas” Alleged “Yesterday’s fracas was planned, as is evident by the fact that three members of the legal profession accompanied the procession with writing pads and pencils in their hands,” said the Premier of Queensland (Mr E. M. Hanlon) in Parliament to-day. “No body of men organised in military forma* tion and armed with sticks should be allowed to take possession of a city street,” he added. The solicitors claimed that they were there to take the names of those who were bit and who did the hitting, said Mr Hanlon. He was satisfied that the police had used every effort to pacify and disperse an illegal procession. Opposition members said “Hear, hear” when Mr Hanlon said the Government trusted the police to see that nobody should take unlawful control of the city. - “One of the marchers, J. Grayson, who was injured, was hit by a civilian and not the police,” continued Mr Hanlon. “The rapidity with which long telegrams of almost uniform text from Communist centres in Darwin, New South Wales, and Victoria have arrived in Brisbane shows that these messages were prepared and ready to be sent before the disturbance took place.” Mr Hanlon read a police report saying that the procession carried a black coffin and numerous placards nailed to hardwood sticks which were three and a-half feet long and one inch square, roughly sawn, and with sharp corners. The report alleged that these pieces of timber were intended as weapons. The police report also claimed that when the* men attempted to force their way through the police cordon they were incited by the barrister, Mr Max Julius. The report said that during the disturbance two detectives found the Communist member of Parliament (Mr Fred Paterson) injured. He told them that while he was walking alongside the procession on the footpath he was hit from behind. As “an act of charity” the detectives drove him, with his consent, to an ambulance station. Mr Paterson’s Condition Mr Paterson’s condition is reported to be better. A medical report says that his skull is not fractured, but that his injuries include extensive lacerations to the scalp necessitating five stitches, severe brain damage, concussion, and shock. Mr Hanlon said he doubted if the police had exceeded their duty in any 1 way. “I cannot believe that what hap-

pened was anything else than a deliberately provoked brawl by the Communist element, which see* defeat staring it in the face.” he said. A move to have the disturbance made the subject of a public inquiry was defeated at a meeting of th* Queensland Parliamentary Labour Party j The Queensland Labour Council has called upon all Brisbane unionists to assemble this afternoon In King George Square to protest against “Fascist brutality.’’ With many more strikers back at work the Queensland railways were able to run over 400 trains yesterday, including the first long-distance mail trains for over five weeks. At Ipswich. 300 miners decided to defy their executive and return to work. World Cheas Toorney.—Keres (Russia). in the seventh round of the world's chess championship, won his adjourned match against Smyslov (Russia) at the fifty-seventh move.— i The Hague, March 17.