DAY-BAKING DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 147, 22 June 1916, Page 2

DAY-BAKING DISPUTE

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION.

A cablegram received on Monday stated that a serious position had arisen in connection with the Trades Hall attempt to introduce day-baking in Victoria. Two of the largest mills in the State would be compelled to .close if all .the employees responded to tie order of the Trades Hall. Mills in the city . and country would be placed in a similar position, and there was a possibility of interference with tho shipments of flour and wheat1 to the Allies. A statement- bearing on this position was made by the Prime Minister of Victoria (Sir Alexander Peacock) earlier in the month. "The Government," he said, I "has _ made arrangements that will be effective in securing an adequate supply of bread for the people. The strike's that have recently taken place in Victoria have been quite bad enough, occurring as they have done in war time, bat in the case of the present bakers' strike those responsible not only ignore the fact that the Empire is at war, not only the fact that 'other means should have been adopted to effect a- settlement, but they strike regardless of the fact that women and children may be without food. Efforts are, I understand, being made by the strikers to secure the cooperation of the flourmill operatives. These men are not only busily engaged in the supply of food for the people, but are actually providing flour for troops at the front. I have made every effort to induce the strikers to use constitutional means of settling their dispute without Government interference, and though the public have not, so far, been without bread, the time has arrived when, if the dispute is not at once settled by the return of tho operatives to work, the psople's food supply will be seriously menaced. "There is abundant evidence that many of the bakers now on strike are distinctly hostile to its continuance, and that they appear to be powerless in the hands of agitators supported by the Trades Hall. The question now is as to whether tho Government is to permit tlie Trades Hall unions to stop the supply of the people's food, and there can only be one answer to that question. Whatever attitude the present strikers adopt the mill wheels must go round, and bread will be delivered, even if it >is necessary for the Government to control 'the mills and the mill equipment. Thus the bakers' strike has now become 'not a 'strike against the employers, but a strike againsjt the public, and one of the most criminal strikes against the public that can be conceived. The.duty of the^ Government is clear, and it is determined to take all necessary action to the full, extent of the State's powers to maintain the food supply of the people." An exchange states that full arrangements have been made for the State to take possession of three of the largest flour mill® in Melbourne, should that be necessary, and to .undertake-the responsibility for delivering flour to all baßeries requiring it. ' :