Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17084, 16 August 1917, Page 4

STRIKE OR INSURRECTION? The strict censorship which , is preventing us from receiving any news by c le respecting the disturbance in New So h Wales has not unnaturally been productive of grave surmise, for it is reasonable to assume that, if the situation had not taken a disquieting turn since the mail left Sydney last week, the embargo on communication would have been removed. The information that has been received by mai) is not cf more recent date than Thursday last, the 9th inst. The following day—.Friday, the 10th

inst.—was to have been the crucial day, so settled by the terms of the declaration issued by the Acting Premier of the State: —

After Friday next (10th inst.) no -workman will go back on his old status. Tlio men who stand by the Government in this crisis will bo amply protected and will receive and maintain seniority in tho future. The men who refuse to return will lose tho special rights and privileges which they now enjoy as tho employees of tho State.

Since that declaration took effect tho only news that has been received in New Zealand through the ordinary press channels indicated the spread of the strike to certain industries which were not originally affected. It must regretfully be concluded, therefore, that during the past few days matters in Sydney have assumed a somewhat menacing aspect. The trouble began with a dispute over a trivial point. In the closing days of July what is known as the card system was introduced by the Railway Commissioners into the workshops at Randwick, the object being to ascertain, under a system that is in force in many business establishments, the time and cost of different processes. The LabourCouncil of New South Wales, professing to discover in the decision of the Commissioners a deeply-laid plan to effect "speeding-up," determined, on the Ist that unless the card system was withdrawn, the whole of the unionists concerned would cease work within 24 hours. The outcome of this was that over 17,000 out of 37,0Q0 men on the wages staff in the railway service went out on strike on the 2nd inst. .Following upon this, on the 4th inst., the Strikers' Defence Committee, which had been established, ordered all railway and tramway men to cease work at midnight and declared all coal in the Railway Department to be "black." On Thursday of last week, the situation appeared more hopeful, for at least 11,000 men had defied the Strike Committee's call, and several thousand others had accepted the Government's invitation to return to work. Indeed, the Sydney Morning Herald, in its issue of tnat day, went so far as to affirm its belief that the strike had been practically broken. It is apparent, however, that events have taken an untoward turn since then, giving strong colour to the Government's declaration that the introduction of the card system was merely an excuse for stopping work, and that "were are in the community numbers of men who have for many months past been steadily working in the direction of a big industrial upheaval," and that "these men are merely using thousands of loyal railway servants to effect their ulterior ends." There is reason to fear, although it is impossible to write authoritatively on the, point, that within the past few days the strike has spread, and now includes the wharf labourers, the seamen, the rural workers, the coal lumpers and miners, and the workers engaged in producing light and power, with the result that chaos has fallen upon the commercial, tho industrial, and the social life of New South "Wales. The potent cry by which this chaos has been brought about is that unionism is in danger. Even if this were the case, there is something in danger that is of far greater importance even than unionism, and that is the authority of the Government of the State and the preservation of law and order. The strikers have, in fact, thrown down the challenge and the Government has promptly accepted it. If the Government stands by its guns, there will now be no drawing back on its part. The conflict must be fought to the bitter end in order either that the authority of the State as a whole may be asserted or that, in the alternative, the principle of. mob rule may be established in New South Wales.