DUBLIN STRIKE

Otago Witness, Issue 3112, 5 November 1913, Page 27

DUBLIN STRIKE

STRIKERS BREAKING AWAY. 200 DOCKERS RETURN. LARKIN’S IMPRISONMENT. LONDON, October 27. Larkin was found guilty of uttering seditious words, and was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment. He successfully challenged several jurymen on the ground that they were prejudiced, and others were chosen in their place. Larkin called no evidence in his defence. Two witnesses for the Crown testified to hearing the speech wherein Larkin said “ I.never sang ‘God Save the King’ except in derision.” Mr James Conolly, of Belfast, succeeds Larkin in the control of the Transporters’ Union. October 29. The deportation of children has been abandoned, though the shipping offices and railway stations are still picketed by the Ancient Order of Hibe. nians and the Roman Catholic clergy. October 30. Organised opposition by Larkin’s supporters prevented Mr Buxton from addressing his constituents at Poplar. Mr Buxton’s appeal for free speech was met by the retort: ‘‘Why should we give you free speech while Larkin is in prison ?” and cries of “why don’t you arrest Sir E. Carson? You bludgeoned women, give Sir E. Carson a taste of forcible feeding;” Free labourers from Manchester are reducing the timber merchants’ employeesat Dublin. They are housed on the premises of the employers.

Two hundred dockers have returned to work, and the strikers are gradually breaking away. Delayed steamers are being discharged, and the merchants are largely employing motor lorries. Probably hundreds of carters will be left without employment when the strike is over. November 1. Messrs Gosling and Bowerman’s efforts to settle the Dublin strike failed. The rumour that they intended to offer the employers the Parliamentary Committee’s guarantee that the workmen would honourably execute the agreement*? led to the Larkinites protesting against English interference. They claimed the right to settle the matter themselves. Mr Gosling assured the strikers that there would be no settlement over the transport workers’ heads. It is unlikely that a settlement will be reached before Christmas. Meanwhile the strikers’ spirit is broken. The tramcars and the majority of coal carts are allowed to pass unmolested. All the pawnshops are full, and the pawnbrokers refuse to receive any more property. Dublin’s loss over the strike is estimated at £750,000. November 2. A crowded demonstration held in the Albert Hall (which holds 12,000 peop;e) demanded Larkin’s release. Mrs Montefiore and Mrs Pethick Lawrence (who recently sought to help the cliildren) were among the speakers. Mr G. Bernard Shaw described Dublin priests as very ignorant and simple men, particularly in industrial affairs; but even more horrible than their individual action in preventing children being.sent to comfortable homes in England was the fact, that a great Church was being made a catspaw by a man like Murphy (chairman of the Tramway Company).