LABOUR WAR IN ENGLAND.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 206, 18 August 1911, Page 1

LABOUR WAR IN ENGLAND.

25,000 SOLDIERS UNDER ORDERS

GUARDING THE RAILWAY LINES.

ALL FORCE NECESSARY WILL BE USED.

[press association. —copyright].

London. Aug. 17

Every available soldier at Aidershot is under orders for service on the railways. The men will be stationed along the lines. lhe cavalry will be utilised at the large stations and to patrol the lines.

Twenty-five thousand men are ready to move in a few hours. Similar orders have been issued at the other military stations in England and Scotland. Several detachments have arrived in London. Only one-fourth of the railwaymen are members of the trades

unions. The railway men have issued a manifesto demanding the same opportunities for combination as other members, also to have the wAg&s and hours settled bx their own union. They are determined to accept nothing less and to settle the job now once and for all. - The Daily Mail” states that the conference asked the companies to meet the union officials halfway, but they refused. The York railwaymen decline to handle the trains for the conveyance of soldiers and police. Widespread unrest exists on the North-east Coast among the colliers, stevedores, boilermakers and shipyard labourers. The new unionists have taken special pains to prevent artificial prices by launching co-operative production and distribution. Business in Manchester is demoralised. The bulk of the transport workers are idle. Strikers have notified the Post Office not to permit postmen to supplant railway porters to unload mails.

The ranks of the strikers are swelling hourly. The police, in arresting a striker, were attacked with stones, bottles, and pieces of iron. Five were severely .injured. The prisoner escaped. The railway services have been reduced 50 per cent London, newspapers are organising motor deliveries in the event of failure on the part of the railways.

Five hundred and fifty* troops have been sent to Cardiff.

MR. BUXTON

AXD RAILWAY

MEX’ COXFERRING.

The strike is not likely to be commenced to-day. Mr. Buxton. President of the Board of Trade, following up yesterday s conference, desired to meet the railwaymen's executive. The latter acquiesced in coming to London to confer. Meanwhile the sectional meetings of railway employees agreed to obey the call.

DEBATE IX THE HOUSE OF

COMMONS

in the House of Commons, Labour members denounced the brutality in employing soldiers. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald criticised Mr. Churchill’s attitude. He said his blood boiled at the conduct of the police. If it was true that an officer shot a man through the hij*ad. he ought to be tried for murder.

Mr. Lloyd George deprecated making Mr. Churchill s and Mr. Buxton's tasks harder. He considered that the 24 hours’ notice was a mistake, making negotiations impossible. He appealed to the men to withhold their threat till the Board of Trade’s machinery had coine into operation, otherwise they would alienate public sympathy. The Government would at all costs protect the railway and the food supply.

Mr. Churchill declared that while the Government would not support the companies against the men, or vice versa, they would see that no disaster to the community’s food supply occurred. ALL RAILWAY MEN CALLED OUT. A BONUS TO LOYAL WORKERS. (Received 18, 8.5 a.m.) London, Aug. 17. The Midland Railway Company offered loyalists a bonus of 50 per cent, on wages during the currency of the strike. Twenty-one thousand military reservists are employed on the various railways whom Government may summon. (Received 18, 11.15 a.m.) The Railwaymen’s secretary announces that the strike will now begin. Six train-loads of troops have brought twelve machine guns to London. Hundreds of the public are walking among the railway lines; making efforts to induce the tramwaymen not to strike, but they failed. The people of Manchester are subsisting on the reserves of food. ABORTIVE CONFERENCE. The railway managers and railwaymen’s representatives have conferred separately with the Board of Trade. Mr. Asquith attended the railwaymen’s delegation and they declined Government’s offer of an immediate Royal Commission to enquire into their grievances with respect to the working of the Conciliation Board. The managers offered to accept it. , Mr. Asquith warned the railwaymen of the consequences of their refusal. MEN DEMAND REINSTATEMENT FIRST. At to-day’s Labour conference the executive of the Railwaymen's Union introduced a new feature, demanding reinstatement of all the men locked out before discussing terms of settlement of the railway men’s claims.

j There has been, fre-sh trouble | with the London dockers. I The dockers complain of the breach of the overtime agreement. I Mr. Churchill stated that contrj ary to agreement some of the Loni don lightermen have struck, ob- | jecting to the employment of non- [ unionists. i | GOOD ADVICE. i The “Chronicle” and the “Morn- ( ing Leader” uphold the principle jof the Conciliation Boards. The ; former declares the sudden repu- ■ diation of the agreement- of 1907. I which would have ended in 1914, | will alienate public sympathy. i I THE LATEST FROM LIVERI POOL. INCENDIARY FIRES AMONG SHIPPING. I CRUISERS ARRIVE IN THE ! MERSEY. I ■ A number of small supposed inj cendiary fires have broken out I among the shipping at Liverpool. I It is doubtful whether the Atlantic liners will be able to leave owing to their inability tv coal. The Cunard and White Star liners’ crews are paid off.

Lord Raglan applied for a cruiser to transport provisions to the Isle

of Man as ordinary communication had ceased owing to the strike.

Several cruisers have arrived in the Mersey. Lord Haldane, in the House of Lords, declared that the Government would use all the force necessary to repress unruly and turbulent violence at Liverpool. He deplored the use of the military, but may be there was no other way.

Further rioting has taken place in Liverpool. The mob smashed windows and tramways, and took no notice of a display of force until the military knelt in the attitude of firing. They then hurriedly left. Scattered assemblages were dispersed by baton charges in various parts of the city. The tramwaymen threaten to strike to-day. The police have secured the services of an armoured motor wagon. The brewery workers are striking owing to the shortage of coal. The Liverpool Corporation humanised milk depot is closing, depriving 700 of the poorest children of all sustenance.

THE MOBS IMPRESSED.

The appearance of the cruisers at Liverpool to protect the shipping with Blue Jackets prepared to land, coupled with the great military activity has impressed the mobs.

FURTHER RIOTING TO-DAY

LIVERPOOL PLUNGED IN DARKNESS.

(Received 18, 11.15 a.m.)

There has been further rioting at Liverpool. The gravest feature of to-day has been the calling-out of the power-house men in order to plunge the city into darkness and stop the tramways.

THE GREAT TOM MANN

CLOTHED WITH BRIEF AUTHORITY.

Tom Mann, in an article in the “ Daily Mail,” states that the present strikes move is in the direction of industrial solidarity, as opposed to sectional trades unionism. The outlook promises gloriously for the workers. There was no real necessity for anyone, not even a labourer, working under 40/-

weekly. Tom Mann declares be will nor issue further permits and adds that the military can take the responsibility of getting the carts through the streets.

Many shopkeepers have removed their tinned goods from their windows.

The shipowners offer to withdraw the lock-out on terms.

TROOPS ARRIVE IX LONDON

(Received IS, 11.15 a.m.)

The troops from Aidershot have reached London. Arrangements have been' made for 5000 to camp in Victoria Park.

TRAIX SERVICES SUSPENDED

GORDON HIGHLANDERS OX GUARD.

(Received IS, 1.54 p,m.)

Five thousand railwaymen at Leeds have struck and many at Blackburn, Bradford and Leicester in the absence of a truce, hut others await the signal from headquarters.

Trains from Manchester, Huddersfield, and all the Midlands between Hull and Sheffield are suspended. The rioters destroyed the Midland signal-box at Sheffield, because it was used after the signalmen had struck.

The Gordon Highlanders have arrived to protect the railways.

INSURANCE AGAINST STRIKE AND RIOTS.

[per press association.] Christchurch, Aug. 17

Advices just received locally from London go to snow that the trouble amongst the transport workers was apparently anticipated some weeks before it actually arose. It appears 1 that on July 3rd about 3/6 per cent, was being charged for insurance against strike and riot, whilst a private cable message received to-day states that the rate' for the same class of insurance is 10/- per cent, in London ad £1 per cent, in Liverpool for fourteen days. The last quarter rates are not astonishing, as is the fact that a rate of 3.6 per cent, was charged early in July when, as far as the cable news from England was concerned, there was no indication that the present trouble was imminent. The July rate seems to indicate that some people in London at that time were expecting serious trouble. It is also noteworthy, as Indicating the seriousness of the position of affairs in London, that the war rate changed during the recent uncertainty in connection with affairs in Morocco was only 2/ 6per cent.

N.Z. MEAT LYING AT THE DOCKS.

Christchurch, Aug. 18.

Gilbert Anderson and Co. cable from London that owing to the transport strike the following quantities of meat are awaiting discharge at London docks :—Mutton 600,000 carcases, lamb 500,000 carcasses, beef 440,000 quartersu