BELATED PROPOSAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 23 February 1922, Page 5

BELATED PROPOSAL.

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION CON-

DEMNED

(Received Feb. 23, 8.55 a.m.)

CAPETOWN, Feb. 22. The Industrial Federation now propose a settlement of the strike by the appointment of a commission on the lines of the Sankey Commission in Britain to enquire into the conditions obtaining in the mining industry and the question of indentured labour, low grade mines to be assisted by a fund controlled by the- State and the employers and employees, and a sliding scale of wages to be adopted.

The general opinion is that the proposals have come too late to affect the

situation.

In rejecting Mr Hertzog's motion to appoint a permanent body to decide industrial disputes, General Smuts, in the Assembly, said the only countries where there was compulsory arbitration were Australia and New Zealand, and in those countries lx it was a ghastly failure. It was one of the devices which was wrecking the whole industrial system of those countries. There was no country in the world where strikes were more rife and the industrial position more unsound than Australia.

The debate on the Rand strike situation was adjourned after Generai Smuts had outlined a plan for -the resumption of work and the appointment of an impartial tribunal to report to Parliament.