The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1940. AUSTRALIAN COAL STRIKE.

Evening Star, Issue 23565, 2 May 1940, Page 8

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1940. AUSTRALIAN COAL STRIKE.

To-day may be fateful in the sorry history of the latest Australian coal strike. The Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) has told the House of Representatives that the Government ■would wait until this afternoon for the decision of the miners’ executive before introducing regulations to reopen the coal mines, with free labour. His ultimatum was delivered on April 22, when he affirmed the Government’s determination that war industries and essential services should be maintained. Public opinion in Australia is whole-heart-edly behind Mr Menzies in the strong stand against this illogical and unjust strike taken by him in recent weeks, and there can be no doubt that if voluntary labour is commissioned the call will be answered by a large body of men in no mood to put up any longer with the poisonous fruits of subversive tactics inspired from an alien source. The trouble has been most persistent in New South Wales, The reason why the State Government has been unable to interfere is that the strike, instituted against a Federal award, covers the industry in three States. The position of the Commonwealth Government is that it has created adequate machinery for the making of industrial awards and rightly declines to undermine the foundation of its own impartial tribunal by allowing itself to be coerced by those who defy the law of the land. In other words, the Federal Government has had no option but to threaten to quell by “ big stick ” methods what must be recognised as a step towards anarchy. The Communist challenge in Australia is being met. In his recent direct appeal to the miners, Mr Menzies placed the situation in clear black and white. The case at issue is not the hours and conditions which are to prevail in the industry. It is this: Do the miners accept the principle of arbitration in industrial disputes, the principle of reasoned argument and impartial adjudication, or do they prefer to adopt direct methods, otherwise known as the rule of force? If the miners choose the rule of force, abandoning the system for which the Labour Party in British countries has fought hard and from which the workers have derived great benefits, they will place themselves on the same footing as those nations which have chosen force as the instrument of their international policy. The Prime Aliuistcr has told them that the door is still open. They can still appeal to tho court and seek a compulsory conference, at which their case will be considered' with all the impartiality that the Jaw can assure. If they neglect this opportunity they must remember that the force at the disposal of the whole community is greater than the force at the disposal of any section of it. No action by the coal owners has precipitated the strike. They accepted an Arbitration Court award which the official organ of the Miners’ Federation described as giving the majority of federationists employed in the industry the highest wages in history, as well as industrial advances and a decided improvement in social conditions. It is thought that the majority of the miners do not, at heart, approve of the dispute, a belief which at least appears to be borne out in Queensland, where tho men are reported to be determined to call the strike off. There seems little doubt that the harm already done has been caused by the easy tolerance of the average British working man in allowing important union executive positions to be occupied by Communists or extreme Left Wing agitators. In all this there lies a lesson for New Zealand, too.