Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, MARCH 14th, 1922. REDS ON THE RAND.

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1922, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, MARCH 14th, 1922. REDS ON THE RAND.

A somewhat lachrymose editorial article appeared iti our morning' contemporary a day or two ago, detailing the virtues of the Baud workers who were on strike, and those readers, if any, who accepted the claims at their face value, must have found it difficult to remain calm. The story of the cruelty, greed, avarice and several other vices of the Rand capitalists,' as displayed by their attitude towards the poor downtrodden strikers, should have aroused the Dominion, aye, even the whole civilised world, to protest, but, alas! for the selfishness of mankind, there came not a whisper, and our morning' contemporary had the indignation all to itself. As for ourselves, we tried hard to believe that the strikers were as angelic as painted by our contemporary, but remem-

Bering' its many previous erroneous estimates, we kept neutral. We did this with an easy mind, because our contemporary’s lugubrious contribution was emphatic in its declarations that Black Brothers on the Hand would support their Red comrades, and that the Nationalists in the Union Parliament would unite with Labour to turn out the class-ridden Smuts Ministry, whose political policy does not contain the plank that the Beds can do no wrong. If all that internal help was forthcoming, it did not seem to' matter much what outsiders thought. We had formed the opinion that the Band strikers did not- have sufficient cause to adopt direct action, but our contemporary is so insistent about biassed cablegrams, that wc wavered, and wondered what was truth. The vision predicted by our contemporary of the Natives rising wholeheartedly in favour of the strikers, and of the Dutch burghers rushing* from their farms to join the Bed commandoes, seemed to suggest, if true, flint those on the spot, who did not depend on cablegrams for their information, were convinced of the justice of the strikers’ cause and methods. We began to feel sorry for Premier Smuts and the Band “capitalists.” Apparently, our contemporary made another blunder. Black Brother failed to rally, and the “fraternity" shown towards the unarmed Natives by some Bed gangs was to shoot them, and burn or wantonly damage their homes and possessions. The Dutch burghers also failed to come up to “Argus” expectations. They, indeed, rushed io the fray, .'but to fight the rebels, not to aid them. The Nationalists in the Union Assembly were also “traitors” io tire Cause, ami voted with the Government for the first time in their history. Evidently, our contemporary is a very poor prophet. The cold-blooded murders of Whites and Blacks want a lot of explaining away. That Labour organisations have been made the.tools of the Reds seems obvious, and it is

io be hoped that the lesson from the Rand revolt will not be wasted on honest trade unionists throughout Hie Empire. The anarchic extremists do not care twopence for flu* real welfare of the industrialists, hut pose as their supporters solely- to use for nefarious purposes the power placed in their hands. What has happened on the Rand could he repeated elsewhere, were the moderate Labour men to consent to surrender their organisations to the authority of the Reds. Revolt is the logical next step to drastic direct action, and when the Reds talk of strike they really mean revolution. Such outbursts can rarely hope to succeed, but the price paid in blood and treasure is usually heavy. The casualty list on the Rand was quite unnecessary, and evidence is forthcoming that the revolt was premeditated, with political, not industrial, inspiration. We do not doubt that the great bulk of tho Red miners and workers throughout South Africa strongly disapprove of the murderous tactics pursued by the Reds, but the mischief done would have been minimised had the counsels of reason been followed. The dispute between the mine owners and the miners was often near settlement, but it was evidently tho planned policy of the Reds to prewent industrial peace and, temporarily, they succeeded too well. The experiences of the Rand revolt should open the eyes of the Workers everywhere to the danger of listening to easy oratory.