No Plan

Grey River Argus, 28 March 1922, Page 5

No Plan

FAILURE OF REPATRIATION PROJECT EX-SOLDIERS IN TRADES. NEGLECTED SHAMEFULLY. BY REPATRIATION DEPARTMENT. Lenin is reported to be dying. Mr H. E. Holland charges the Repatriation Department with neglecting the ex-soldiers whom it had arranged to provide with trades. Mr Massey promises a new railway policy shortly. .. Postmaster-General Coates is anxious lest the postal officers’ ballot favours joining the Alliance of Labour. Shipping employers asked the Arbitration Court yesterday at Wellington to both reduce wages and abolish preference to unionists. A cyclonic storm .at Warkworth .destroyed houses. The youthful bushranger, Mapl:, in Gippsland, has been shot in the forehead and taken by the police, but is unlikely to live. All N.S.W. Ministers are re-elected, but anti-Labour Parties expect a majority of ten. Many million tons of British and American shipping is reported idle. The Ulster conditions are akin to civil war, the Government putting a large force along the frontier, while Belfast outrages continue. In Dublin, despite the Free State prohibition, the I.R.A. is holding a conference. British papers say Churchill may join the Tories if the Coalition ends, but he is obviously afraid of Labour. A British Air Force head asks for more aerial armaments. Britain is seeking at Genoa Conference virtually to revise the Peace Treaty terms. Allied terms give Turkey back an area in Europe, with independence, leaving the Armenians to the care of the League of Nations. Greece will accept the Allied armistice terms and Turkey has yet to decide. ' A political crisis continues in Japan over the the popular opposition to militarism. Bungling at Frisco in fumigating the Tahiti led to two of the crew being fatally gassed. An earthquake disaster is reported from Siberia. (Special to “Argus.'’) WESTPORT, March 27. Speaking at a Labour gathering here, Mr. 11. E. Holland, M.P., criticised the recent report of the Repatriation Department, and charged that the Department was not paying very much attention to the returned soldier, after having placed him in an occupation. Quoting from an official statement of the Federated Furniture Trades Union, of Wellington, he. said that, out of 36 returned soldiers who have entered the 'Wellington furniture trade since 1918, by December last 24 of them had left the trade. Of the twelve who remained in the trade, three were unemployed; one was employee! on half-time; five were still finishing their time; and only three were working as journeymen. The Union, he said, had accorded these men every facility in the direction of a fair deal, but the Department seemed to be working without much plan, for while there were polishers in the trade who could not find work, these returned men were being taught polishing. The Union wanted to know what advantage it was to teach men a trade if, when their trade was finished, there was no work for them at the calling. It was further charged that some private firms had attempted to get the labour of returned men as cheaply as possible, and there was a demand that these firms should be made to keep their returned soldier employees at work on the minimum rate, instead of displacing them at the stage when they were in need of a little more experience. He expressed the opinion that it would prove of wide interest if the Repatriation Dcpartmnt woulde furnish a complete list of the returned men who had entered the furniture trade in every centre, and those who were still in the trade.

YOUNG BUSHRANGER FALLS. MORTALLY WOUNDED BY POLICE FUSILADE. “WOULD NOT BE TAKEN ALIVE.” (Received March 27, at 11.15 p.m.) MELBOURNE, March 27. The youth John Maple, 16 years of age (who with Robert Banks, another 16-year-old youth, escaped from Castlemaine Reformatory Home, and who, after Banks was captured, held many at bay with a gun at Kerim Junction, in Gippsland) has been taken. It now transpires that the man who was shot by Maple at Kerim Junction was a returned soldier named George Woolstencroft. The latter sighted Maple, when the boy was taking cover behind a log, and Woolstencroft rode at him. Swinging his rifle to the level, the boy fired a shot, shattering Woolstencroft’s rifle stock. Woolstencroft then attempted to draw a revolver, but he received a bullet in the shoulder. He then turned to gallop to cover, but he was shot through the lung. In view of this, the police had issued to them army rifles, and they were ordered to shoot Maple on sight, as he no longer was regarded as a misguided youth, but as a young desperado. To-day an armed party came upon him near Kerim Junction, and he fired twice. A fusilade was then fired at him. He fell, being shot between the eyes. He is not expected to live until he reaches the hospital. Banks, Maple's associate, states the latter told him that he intended to parallel the worst exploits of the Australian bushrangers, and that he would not be taken alive. LENIN DYING. DANISH REPORT OF SOVIET CONFERENCE. (Received March 27, at 10 p.m.) COPENHAGEN, March 26. The Soviet leaders have been summoned to Moscow to consider the position in the event of M. Lenin’s death, which is now regarded as imminent. UNPRECEDENTED SHIPPING SLUMP. MILLIONS OF TONS IDLE. (Received March 27, at 3.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 25. There are now over two million tons of shipping —British and foreign —lying idle in the 36 principal ports of the United Kingdom, of which 1,900,000 tons are British. Altogether two and a quarter million tons of British shipping are unemployed, out of a total of 18 million tons. The position of American shipping is worse. Five million tons of American State-owned shipping, out of a total of twelve and a half million tons, are idle, in addition to the large amount privately owned. ALL MINISTERS RETURNED. N.S.W. ELECTIONS. (Received March 27, at 11.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 27. In regard to the State elections, there is so far no change in the state of the parties. The counting is proceeding very slowly, as the first preference votes are being checked before the other preference votes are looked into. All the members of the Dooley Cabinet have retained their seats. The police report states that polling day was the most orderly and quiet on record. NEW RAILWAY POLICY. MASSEY CHANGES HIS TUNE. AUCKLAND, March 27. Speaking at the Auckland Commercial Travellers’ Club, Mr Massey said that he hoped, in the near future, to announce a new Railway policy. He left for Whangarei to-night.