A BRITISH PROTEST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 22 August 1925, Page 9

A BRITISH PROTEST.

AGAINST AUSTRALIAN “REDS.” CAUSING TROUBLE ON SHIPS.

NOT SUPPORTED AT HOME. BY CABLE—PRESS ISSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received Aug. 22, 1.45 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 21. Shipowners, also the Seamen’s Union, have cabled to Mr Bruce, Commonwealth Prime Minister, protesting against the Australian extremists intimidating the crews (of British ships in Australian ports, with a view to compelling them to resist the reduction in wages. Already 50,000 British seamen have accepted the reduction without a protest, and the only trouble bad occurred in the Australian lines. Mr Havelock Wilson, the union’s secretary, points out that the majority of the seamen admit the justice of the reduction, winch was introduced in all current articles, as the increase in wages was introduced in 1924. Obstructionist methods of the Australian “Reds” are tending to spread trouble to vessels in the Australian trade lying in British ports. Mr Havelock Wilson’s cable emphasises that Australian seamen were not affected by the appeals from Mr "Bruce to restrain Mr Walsh frpm interfering, because the movement menaces and prejudices the British Union, which is upholding the principles for which it has struggled for forty years. The Australian unwarranted intervention constitutes an act of treachery to the whole trade union movement. Shipowners appeal to Mr Bruce to take all step s to. prevent the Australians illegally intimidating British sailors and persuading them tia repudiate the agreement.—Sydney Sun Cable.