LABOUR TROUBLES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 4

LABOUR TROUBLES.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Your correspondent, Thos. \oung, hue* read Willi satisiaction the Prime Minister s words and bold stand taken ancnt the Westfield strikers. Mr loung, apparently, is easily satislied even m tnc hour 6f national peril. Superficially, Mr Eraser has taken a strong and bold stand, but would it not have been a diplomatic triumph and greater feat of industrial strategy if Air Fraser and Mr Webb had Mown to Auckland, got the employers and employees on the spot, demanded all cards to be put on tlic table, and used strong words to both parties il necessary 'f Then in all probability all hands would have been in full production in the shortest possible time. Mr Fraser evidently preierred to stay in Wellington, and when asked what was to be done replied tiiat the police had the matter well in hand. .Wats it fair to the police to push the job on to them 'i The police in doing their duty (reluctantly perhaps in this case) would be conscious that at best they would only incur the hate of the strikers, and the police have a union now. Again, the Prime Minister, an erstwhile labour leader, seems to have forgotten that calling on the police is a timehonoured Tory custom and .has always been the means of infuriating the strikers and intensifying the trouble. I wonder it Mr Fraser-is as happi and satislied at this moment as Thos. Young? There are still (at time of writing) 1700 men out, with another 300 and more to be His Majesty's guests for a month, when there is room in the prisons; added to that, as a result of this unfortunate trouble, the freezing workers and watersiders generally throughout the land have grown sullen and revengeiul. At the present there are at least 2000 freezing works operatives consuming instead of producing, and it would be correct to say that a large percentage of these men. also women, have husbands, brothers, or sweethearts fighting overseas, and thev are just as patriotic and keen to do their bit as the armchair critics who are perhaps doing little or nothing, but see fit to condemn these men and women. There is something wrong somewhere and in my opinion it is Mr Fraser's and Mr Webb's job to pour oil on the troubled waters at Westfield and Hcllaby's, and the police should bo relieved of the unpalatable job. Mr Young suggests that these men should not be allowed to enter any productive works again. Characteristic, of bis tvpe. no doubt be would prefer to sec them all bundled into prison if there was room, but I think the majority of patriots would prefer to see the two thousand-odd men and women back in their respective jobs again doinc: useful and essential work, and the Prime Minister and his Cabinet know that to get these people back to work is far more inspiring and important than rallying round the Prime Minister and giving him every ounce of doubtful strength to prolong the agony, as Mr Young seems keen to direct. Tact and reason are more essential.—l am, etc., T. ROE. I 25/3/42.