THE DUTCH SHIPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1946, Page 8

THE DUTCH SHIPS

WHARF WORKERS REMAIN ADAMANT INDEPENDENCE ISSUE SYDNEY, April 16. None of the seven Dutch ships held up in Australia will be loaded until the Indonesian Republican Government endorses their sailing, stated the treasurer of the Waterside.Workers’ Federation, Mr. S. Morel. Speaking during a rally in the Sydney Town Hall, he said that the watersiders were right in 1938 when they banned pig-iron shipments 1o Japan, and again in 1946 when they were preventing the sailing of Dutch ships. Ho said that the ships would not sail until the question of Indonesian independence was settled to the satisfaction of the Indonesians. Most recent reports from the Dutch authorities indicate that they are now concerned only with getting the ships away in ballast, if necessary, so that they can be used elsewhere. -Communist candidates were decisively defeated in a ballot for the election of. 12 New South Wales delegates to the biennial conference of the Waterside Workers’ Federation. Both • Communist and' Australian Labour Party candidates were run on the ticket system, and much bitterness was displayed in the campaign. Nine Labour Party supporters were returned. At present the majority of the Sydney branch' officials are supporters of the Communist Party, but the opposition Labour men regard the result of the ballot- as a good augury for the general election of officers for the Sydney branch.