TROUBLE IN QUEENSLAND

Evening Star, Issue 20959, 25 November 1931, Page 9

TROUBLE IN QUEENSLAND

GENERAL STRIKE THREATENED

STARTED BY RAILWAYMEN

Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright BRISBANE. November 24. A general strike is looming in Queensland. The trouble began at Townsville. when the local shunters refused to handle a truck of Chillagoe ore because it was loaded by non-unionists. The shunters were summarily dismissed, and the whole of the railwaymen in the Townsville yard then struck, bub the rail wrvices have been carried on with skeleton staffs from elsewhere. A mass meeting of railwaymen held at the Brisbane Trades Hall decided to support the Townsville men, and to demand increases in pay and a forty-four-hour week for men at northern depots. The Premier (Mr A. E. Moore) announced that the Government would afford the fullest protection to those who remained loyal, and would suppress intimidation. It would also probably reconsider the whole of the transport policy, which will mean severe retrenchment of the railway services, involving the dismissal of many ringleaders in the present trouble.

THE STRIKE EXTENDS

COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES SUSPECTED.

BRISBANE, November 25. (Received November 25, at 10.30 a.m.) The railway strike is extending. The railwaymen at Cloncurry, Hughenden, and Innisfail decided to cease work. The trouble is believed to have been fomented by Communists. At Hughepden over 100 men marched to the railway station, led by a well-known Communist, and sang ‘The Red Flag.’ All police leave has been cancelled. Twenty-four police have been despatched to the centre of the disturbance.