THE I.M.W. IN AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17067, 27 July 1917, Page 6

THE I.M.W. IN AUSTRALIA

GROWING PUBLIC INDIGNATION.

(Feom Oub Own Cobeespondkst ) SYDNEY, July 18. If a supine Government cannot be roused to action by the open defiance of the I.W. vv.—which, goes regularly into the publio places and frankly talks sedition— public indignation may yet rid the community of this pest. Opposition to recruiting is only one of the many criminal activities in which this organisation engages, but it is this which has greatly angered the troops. Only the intervention of the police on Sunday saved the LW.W. men from a thorough trouncing. The soldiers, both recruits and returned men, arc on the warpath..

The I.W.W. agents are among the picturesque people who address tho crowd in the Domain on 'V.indays. Last Sunday about 100 soldiors took a hand in the proceedings. They formed into a solid column, in fours] and marched firmly through the middle of tho I.W.W. audience. When they camo through again to open country, they wheeled about, and marched back through the crowd. Every time the sedition-mongers began to offend the good air with their facile phrases the soldiers cleared a track through the heart of the crowd. Twice the speakers were unceremoniously spilled off their perch. The crowd snarled, and looked ugly but the solid line of khaki, while it offered no violence, looked as if it would receive none Ihen the police and military police interfered, and the soldiers wore persuaded to leave tho Domain. They marched through the streets to the railway station, followed by thousands of people, and dispersed. There was an uglier demonstration in the evening. A rumour went around that a rernedman had been brutally iU-treated by tie I.W.W. AJarge crowd of soldiers and civdiane marched from the railway station to George street, and demonstrated before the Soldiers' Club. Here theTr num£, were greatly augmented, and suddenly thev for trouble, for the I.«V.W. headquartnrs in Siisso X street. As they went, they gathered stones and tore the Palmgs off fences. Luckily for the t "nT'"- "few° wd fonnd the leading to the . W.W. rooms guarded by a 'hit force of foot, mounted, ana mUitarv police The crowd, which numbered thousands/ was not readily persuaded to give up its prey inere was a funoua demonstration and ewaes ytoe© fontr fceely, «jme striking the

■lohee But the latter were very, calm and -acfcfuland.gradually broke up the crowd One httle detachment, however, found an unguarded right-of-way, which led to near rhe rear of the I.W.W. premises, and the building received a fusillade of stones. The was the worst that happened, but it was 11 p.m. before the police persuaded the demonstrators to go home. During the evening not an LW.W. man was seen. Therein, they at least showed w«km. The feeling against plotted and traitors ,s very marked, and growing, and it would bo m their interests, M well as for the public good, if the whole organist e^sed. ere prompd y ■** completely sup-