THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1930, Page 2

THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE

SOME SHOCKING STORIES. According, to a Wellington resident who recently paid a visit to Newcastle on,' business, tlie striking miners of the Maitland district have ; successfully squelched all sympathy by, their acts of cruelty and heartlessness toward those whom they deem to be working against their interests. Shocking stories were told to him of the practices indulged in toward men who took up working the mines which had been declared “black” by the Strikers. In one case a man and his son were proceeding along a quiet road when they were bailed up, the sulkie and the harness were burnt, the man and his son were stripped of their clothes, which were also burnt, and then shame fully tortured. In another instance, it was said, a free worker was also stripped, and his body was staked out over an ant hill, until the man was driven almost insane. The manner in which the miners were declaring everything and everybody “black” he said, would be laughable if the effect were not tragical, ' Np traveller cou]d go into the district without his bags being overhauled by the strikers, and if the\ thought there was anything in the wares he was peddling that were likely to be used against them the samples were destroyed and the man was ordered out of the district. A reign of terror prevailed fW"'- 1 OMt, the Maitland district,. Many of the tilings done by the strikers were unmentionable, but the police were being strengthened gradually all the time, and arrests were lming made whenever there was hope of a conviction.

To show how brave the strikers are. lie said that recently about 0 030 «trilers attacked a posse off half a dozen policemen. The latter were only armed with, batons, hut when they faceri them, and began knocking them on tlm head, some fled, others went down, before they were touched and the little baud, of sturdy policemen; went right through the mob, arid dispersed it, afterwards arresting the ringleaders.

“There are clever men who egg the others ,on, then, when there is any re s.istance, they tail round the back leaving their dupes to. face the inset,” lie said. “There, is not the slightest doubt in anyone’s mind that the whole thing is influenced by, an- outside organisat,dn. The men 1 themselves do not deny it; and trie Government has been so .weak-kneed over the whole business that the Communist element have becoine rulers of the situation, and almost stick at 'nothing.

“In the meantime coal is being brought all ' the way 'from England to Australia' to keep the industries going lint Mr Theodore, in the Federal House of Parliament,' is seeking to block the importation of coal from any outside source whatsoever. If he succeeds in inducing, the House to act there will be creating in Australia n state of chaos, 'for without fuel all the industries must. Stop, - the gas works must close down; electric plants will oe,n,se to. ■ function,-steamers . to run, , and the whole industrial and social fabric will be subjected, to an upheaval the like of which has not yet been seen in Australia.