VICTORIAN STRIKE CRISIS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22320, 3 May 1947, Page 5

VICTORIAN STRIKE CRISIS

GOVERNMENT TRANSPORT SUGGESTED CANBERRA, May 2. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. G. Mcnzies, has called on the Federal Government to provide transport to meet the Victorian strike emergency and protect the men who have volunteered to man the vehicles. ITis speech brought about, a bitter debate in the House of Representatives which continued until the House adjourned Mr. Menzies said the Government might soon have to choose between anarchy and direct action. It seemed to regard the dispute as merely a Melbourne affair, but the hold-up of production in the Victorian factories was affecting other States. If the transport of people to work by normal means was to be prohibited by a-Hawless minority, then the Government itself must provide the transport. It must organise that transport, call for volunteers to man the vehicles and give protection to the volunteers. If the Government did not recruit men and special constables the only alternative, and one which he would deplore, was that the citizens would organise into irregular bands.

Government Organisation Urged “I have a violent objection to anything that looks like a private army, ' but a force should be organised by the Government,” Mr. Mcnzies concluded. 1 The Minister of Transport, Mr. E. J. Ward, accused Mr. Mcnzies of trying to influence the voting in the New South Wales election. He said the Labour Party had been exerting all its efforts to find a solution, but Mr. Menzies did not want one until the New South Wales and Queensland elections were over. The easiest way to cause strife and bloodshed was Mr. Menzies’ suggestion that the community should be organised into irregular armies. It was an invitation to the workers to prepare ] to resist any attempt that might be made against them. Mr. Ward said Mr. Menzies wanted a repetition of the days when workers were shot on the Melbourne waterfront. “Wild and Provocative.” The Minister of Information, Mr. A. A. Calwell, said Mr. Menzies’ speech was the wildest and most provocative made in Parliament for years. The Deputy Leader of the Country Party, Mr. McEwen, said that the House had heard speeches from two Ministers who showed themselves as supporters of the strike. Never had there beer, a more terrifying revelation. The outlawry of the engineering union was completed by the decision of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council to endorse the direction of the Australian Council of Trade Unions to strikers to return to work and submit Us case io the court. i

The motion was carried fey 118 votes to 9G The militant union already faces deregistration by the Arbitration Court on May 7 and now will also have to consider disaffiliation by the council Women's organisations have decided to picket Parliament House in Melbourne continuously from Tuesday when the Legislative Assembly will reassemble. All doors and entrances will be watched and members will have to run the gauntlet of women demanding what they intend to do about the industrial crisis. Power Crisis in the Offing The indications are that Melbourne will experience an almost immediate black-out. Officials of the Amalgamated Engineering Union are expected to extend the dispute to the Yallourn powerhouse. which supplies the bulk of Victoria’s electric power. This would plunge Victoria into industrial chaos, and possibly cause the greatest crisis in trade union history. No extension of the strike to New South Wales can bo made without the approval of the Commonwealth council of the union, the secretary of which is non-committal. The Sydney district secretary, Mr. A. E. Scarle, said he regarded the extension as likely. The formation of “protection squads” or any other self-constituted body to enforce the law was illegal, and would be frowned on by the police, said a spokesman of the Victorian Police Department. He was commenting on a report that the Ex-Scrvicemen’s League and women’s organisation were forming a corps of vigilantes to protect transport drivers and perform other strikebreaking duties.