SIGNS OF SPLIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22585, 13 March 1948, Page 5

SIGNS OF SPLIT

Q’LAND STRIKERS LOCO. MEN TO RESUME UNION HEADS IN COURT lN.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) (10.40 a.m.) BRISBANE, March 13. Despite the spate of solidarity resolutions passed by the raihvaymen throughout Queensland yesterday, evidence is accumulating of a definite split in the strikers’ ranks. Reports through Government channels indicate that about 1000 locomotive enginemen intend to return to work on Monday. Already so many railwaymen are back that 21-0 trains ran yesterday, compared with 145 on Thursday and only one a fortnight ago. The watersiders at Bowen have begun to unload the freighter Time which arrived yesterday with GOO tons of general cargo, including food. ' Mass meetings of strikers yesterday decided, by overwhelming majorities, to continue the strike. Watersiders Decide to Stay Out

The Brisbane watersiders voted to stay out in sympathy with the railwaymen.

At Ipswich, the main railway yards in Queensland, the voting to continue the strike was 1950 to 50, according to Trades Hall officials.

Six men, including Michael Healy, secretary of the Trades and Labour Council, and Edward Conrad Englart, the Queensland secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, appeared yesterday in the Brisbane Police Court charged with attempting to persuade the men at the Shell Oil depot from working and with failing to keep away when warned by a police sergeant, Mr. Max Julius, who appeared for the defendants, said that the “Industrial Law Amendment Act, recently enacted, appears to be such a tyrannical invasion of the civil rights of civilians that counsel requires to consider its validity.” The charges were adjourned. Earlier today Healy and Englart. again led pickets who paraded in front of the Shell depot. Their names and those of nine other men were again taken. M.P.’s Fences Tarred At Ipswich the word “traitor” has appeared written in tar two feet high on the fences of two Members of Parliament, the Attorney-General, Mr. Gledson, and Mr. D. Donald. Though the talks between the Central Disputes Committee and the Commissioner of Railways, Mr. T. E. Maloney, were not successful, an offer by Mr. Maloney not to oppose in the court the granting of the April 12 marginal wage increase for fitters is believed to have satisfied many members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The New South Wales Transport Department has agreed to wave the road tax of 3d per ton a mile on the convoy of 15 trucks wh'ch will take food by road to strike-bound Queensland from Sydney next week. . The convoy is due at Sydney from Queensland with 155 tons of fruit from Queensland, also tax-free. All applicaiions for tax-free road haulage will be examined closely.