[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DEFENCE ACT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1912, Page 3

[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DEFENCE ACT.

IRONMOULDERS' DECISION. CHRISTCHURCH, 6th May. The decision of the Ironmoulders' Union to take a plebiscite of its members on the proposal that if tho compulsory clauses of the Defence Act remain unrepealed by next Labour Day, a strike should be declared, is ridiculed in responsible Labour circles in the city. Even unionists who have some liking for the strike as an argument, and who are bitterly opposed to the compulsory clauses, say that it would be folly*to use the strike in a purely political controversy. This opinion us not unanimously held, but the great majority of the Workers' representatives who were questioned to-day declined to take the suggestion seriously. Mr. D. G. Sullivan, president of the Trades and Labour Council, said that he would prefer not to express an opinion on such a matter, because a question of the kind- — if anything came of it — would have to be considered by the Trades and Labour Council, and it would scarcely be proper for him to make a statement without the express authority of the council. ALr. Sullivan added that his personal feeling was utterly against the idea of a strike. A prominent Labour leader who was approached said that the ironmoulders' resolution was, in his opinion, "hot air." He did not believe that the members of the union would have a word to cay in favour of the proposal if the suggestion were submitted to a vote. Another Labour leader remarked that there was little chance of trades unions generally falling in with the proposals, as they were divided on the question of defence. Personally, he favoured military training, bm, not the present Defence Act. He wanted to see some scheme which could be democratically administered. Mr. Louis P. Christie and Mr. C. R. N. Mackie, prominent officers of the National Peace Council, stated thakthe action of the union was taken without any instigation from their organisation. The Peace Council was naturally pleased to see the workers, through their unions, expressing their disapproval of compulsory military training, but it did not approve of any but constitutional methods being employed to effect reform. It certainly would not advocate an industrial strike, but there were indications that the workers, or at least that section of tho workers sympathetically inclined to the Federation of Labour, were prepared to use the strike as a weapon in the matter of military training, and for other purposes. A resolution was carried last evening by the Socialist party to the effect that in case of war the workers would " down tools." It was decided that the resolution should be submitted to every Labour organisation in New Zealand. [BT TBLBOBAJfH— 3i?XCIAL TO THX POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A prominent Labour leader, referring to the Iroumoulders' Union resolution, said regarding Mr. Sullivan's non-com-mittal reply concerning the attitude of the Trades and Labour Council: — "I can quite understand Mr. Sullivan's desire to avoid making a statement. In the first pla.ee, it is very unlikely that Mr. Sullivan would regard the proposal as ;i serious affair, and in the fcecond, the position of the Trades and Labour Council would be peculiar, not to say delicate, if the idea of a strike were at all widely taken up. The council is. dead against the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act, but it is also against the strike. If it came to a question of a strike against the Defence Act, therefore, the council would have to oppose ihe movement even while it was anxious to see the compulsory clauses repealed-; but, really, I don't think the matter is worth arguing. A handful of the membra of the Ironmoulders' Union has evidently carried a catch resolution, and probably nothing more will be heard of the matter. This is the first time I have ev«r heard of this particular union threatening to do anything desperate."