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Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 17

DETERMINED. MINERS

WARLIKE BAREICADE

WIVES NEGOTIATE. TERMS

(From "Th,e Post's": Representative".)' ' SYDNEY, March 5.

Australia's' first "stay-in" strike —at the North Wallarah colliery, in the Newcastle district—ended after thirty miners for thirty-eight hours had barricaded themselves ■in the pit behind wood and metal barriers charged with electricity. The men ..spent their time below in community .singing and discussing Australia's prospects in the fifth Test match, the scores in which filtered down to them. Their ordeal was trying.

The men came to the-surface only when their union officials'/assured them that their demands had bepn conceded. The wives of three of the miners wera given the credit for settling the strike.

After the miners had barricaded themselves in the mine, their wives cooked provisions which they hoped to get down to the men. , When tha women attempted to take the food to the strikers; / the police would not allow: them to go • near the pithead. The women were disappointed. Some wept, others shouted, and a few threatened to break through, the police cordon round the entrance to the tunnel. There were threats of an ugly scene, but union officials calmed the women. The officials were permitted to speak ■ through ■ the mine telephone ■ to tha strikers, and three of the women stood near them during the conversation. The strikers repeated that they were all right, and that they were determined to stay in the mine until their term's were ' granted. "If needs be," they added, "we will die here for tha principle involved." ■ COLLAPSE OF ONE OF THE MEN. A message was sent to the officials that one of the strikers had collapsed, and it was considered advisable to hays him removed from the mine. Tha strikers permitted only two ambulance men to pass their barricade. Explosives had been arranged in such a way that the place resembled a front-lina trench in the Great War.- Hand grenades had been made with detonators and -gelignite. A hole was made in the barricades just large enough for the ambulance men to squeeze through. The men had locked themselves in a portion of the mine where there was no electric light, and, through darkness, the ambulance merv with the aid of torches, found the sick miner in a state of collapse.- He pleaded to be left there with his mates, but the ambulance • men insisted that they should.take"'him out.. The darkness and the damp floor of the tunnel with *a strong current, of cold air from the ventilation shaft N exposed him to all kinds of risks. Oxygen had to be given to the sick man before he could be roused from his comatose state. As the ambulance drpve through the crowds waiting about the entrance to the mine property, the anger of many of the women was aroused. Union officials had another talk with the strikers, and as a result three of tha miners' wives were delegated to interview the mine manager. A procession of about 250, mostly women and children, led by the :three women, moved towards the manager's home. After their interview" with-him;' the three women said that he had accepted aii offer made by/the" strikers; and union officials wenf ■■back to the colliery and informed the men. The miners .cheered in the dar.kness behind the barricades, but said that an agreement would have to. be signed. AN ORDERLY WITHDRAWAL. As soon as this was done the stayin strikers pulled down the strong barricades, placed all the explosives safely away, and took the detonators I from the gelignite hand grenades. The brattice which had been held ready to keep the air-in the mine fresh—the miners believed that an attempt might be made to smoke them out—was also returned to its proper place, and before they came but of the mine everything was left ready for the immediate resumption of work. _ ■ A few .wives at the entrance to the tunnel embraced/ their husbands -as they came out and then a procession was formed, the miners riding their bicycles slowly back- to Swansea, a nearby township, their lamps shining through the darkness. As they; approached a hall, where they were welcomed, motor horns were sounded, 'everyone cheered, and some of the wives danced on the main Sydney road. iThe celebrations lasted long into tha night. '

"ST^Y>IN^ STRIKE