DIVISION or OPINION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 245, 15 September 1932, Page 7

DIVISION or OPINION

GENERAL STRIKE PROPOSAL

MEETINGS IX AUSTRALIA

MANY MINERS OPPOSE PLAN

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 15, 9.15 a.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 15. Aggregato meetings- of the miners at all the centres indicated a division of opinion among the men concerning the advisability of adopting the recommendation of the Central Council for a general strike.

Generally speaking, the result of the voting was against the strike proposal. The outstanding feature of the meetings almost everywhere was that great numbers of miners, many of them unemployed, refrained from voting. At Cessnock the vote in favour of striking was 677 to 124; West Wallsond supported a strike by 154 to 10, and Litligow by a small majority reached a similar decision. At Kurri and in the lower fields around Newcastle, as well as- the south coast, the strike plan was rejected by big majorities. Woonona voted 750 to 250 against a strike and Wallsend 294 to 7 against. A mass meeting of 5000 railway and tramway employees at the Sydney Town Hall carried a motion protesting against the wage reductions and decided to launch a campaign to effectively combat the attacks made on them.

NO MONEY IN UNION’S COFFERS

SYDNEY, Sept. 14. Ten thousand coal miners in the Newcastle and Maitland fields held meetings to consider their attitude on the proposal for a general strike. They were anything but unanimous. Their leaders informed them that in the event of a strike they would have to fend for themselves as there was no monoy in the union’s coffers.