UNCOMMONLY LIKE A TIGER

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12242, 14 September 1925, Page 6

UNCOMMONLY LIKE A TIGER

In justifying the seizure of the Mount Morgan mines by the men, the Queensland Home Secretary has given his blessing to what looks uncommonly like a tiger. , , . The incident is without precedent in modern Australian history. It amounts to industrial bushrangxng of a nature that would do credit to Russia or America’s most lawless Wild West, Without warning; so far as has been reported, the miners steppe,d m, ejected forcibly or otherwise the company’s staff, and entered into possession. And they are still in possession, since the State has taken no action to remove them. . Far from asserting its authority, indeed, the State, through the’Home Secretary, has Connived at the outrage. If the Minister is right, the men had a grievance, and a substantial grievance, with the company. But whatever provocation can be proved, there is not even a shadow of justification for such outlawry. It is Bolshevism pure and unadulterated, and Bolshevism breeds 80lTheodore was a strong man. When he resigned, and a weak man succeeded to.the Premiership, trouble was inevitable in this labour-pampered State. The rather miserable surrender to the raiding hands revealed the spinelessness of Mr Gillies, and undoubtedly paved the way for what occurred at Mount Morgan. That was bad enough, but that a Minister of the Crown should be Iso misguided as to side with the law-breakers is disquietingly worse. It is tantamount to an invitation to other bodies of workers to help themselves when they feel like it. That sort of thing, carried to its logical extreme, means ultimately a proletariat dictatorship. Lucky Queensland capitalists ! . As an avowed opponent of Direct Action, Premier Gillies, is a fraud. His Home Secretary is either a fool or a political rogue.