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PICKETS DISPERSED

QUEENSLAND STRIKERS jj SWIFT POLICE ACTION (11 a.m.) BRISBANE. March, 17. In the swiftest, most direct and most successful police action since picketing began at the Shell Company depots, the police arrested the state secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, Mr. E. C. Englart and broke up a demonstration of about 60 men and women. Englart later appeared in the Police Court on traffic charges and was remanded. Bail was allowed. The police surrounded the demonstrators and read portions of the anti-Pic-keting Act. The pickets were then dispersed and shepherded out of the locality.

The final refusal of the New South Wales Road Transport Department to issue permits for the transportation by road to Queensland of urgently needed goods will be investigated* by the New South Wales Premier, Mr. J. McGirr. An attempt to wreck coal trains running between Ipswich and Brisbane has been foiled by the watchfulness of of a railway linesman. Railway officials admitted that the linesman patrolling the track 30 miles from Brisbane found that 14 dog spikes had been pulled up from one length of line and that the fishplate coupling had been partly removed. Detectives believe that the damage was done by an experienced railwayman as dog spikes are difficult to remove. At least one coal train passed over the damaged section without being derailed. An expert who examined the line said that the second train would probably have caused the lines to spread, making a derailment inevitable. A fast passenger train would have been wrecked immediately. Heavy Blow to Strike The action of the Australian Federated Union of locomotive engineers in ordering its 2300 members to report for work today is considered possibly a mortal blow to the central disputes’ committee. Trains running yesterday carried 20,000 passengers, mostly on the suburban lines. Nevertheless, the chairman of the Queensland Labour Council central disputes committee, M. O’Brien, predicted in Melbourne that the strike would continue for several weeks. Two major airlines have discontinued special air freight services owing to the increasing frequency of trains and so it is expected that only the R.A.A.F. ‘'biscuit bombers” will remain in the field.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19480317.2.67

Bibliographic details

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 5

Word Count
356

PICKETS DISPERSED Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 5

PICKETS DISPERSED Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 5