MARINE ENGINEERS' STRIKE

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 41

MARINE ENGINEERS' STRIKE

GRAVE POSITION DEVELOPING (Feou Ook. Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, January 28. It is two months since the marine engineerf took the course not generally followed bi, professional men and called a strike. Eyeryjt one expected the trouble to be over in < week or two. It is still as much ''on' as eve* it was, and the community is beginning ,t€ feel alarmed. The email coastal shipping hsrf not been affected, and coal and .foodstuff* have therefore been able to move from placj to place, to a limited degre, but "pinch" is developing, and the gravest apprei hension is being expressed in many quarter* Many big industries are now partly of whollv idle. The great smelters at Port Piria customarily employing 2000 hands, are no* almost shut down, and the shutting off oi< supplies of coal from the east threatens to? close up almost immediately the town s light* ing and power plant. It is estimated that 25,000 men are idl* in Australia as a result of the strike. la Sydney alone there are thousands of water* eide workers and carters who are faced witif starvation. The paralysis on a great section; of the wharves has cut them off from their means of livelihood, and the Government M understood to be favourably considering their, urgent appeal for relief. The whole of ther meat-canning factories in New South Wales have closed this week, and more than 2OOQ men are idle as a result of that alone. All the big inter-State steamers are idle*. The total tonnage tied up at the»wharves as a result of the srike is abou 250,000. , The blame for this long ond distracting bold* up is not being laid by the public at th« door of the engineers—with whom the publia is very sympathetic. The blame is going ttf the Federal Government for permitting th« Shipping Controller, a. very stubborn English? officer, Admiral Clarloson, to dictate its policj? and control the situation. This official goef on the theory that all strikers must W humbled, whatever the circumstances, whatever the cost to the country. He folii lowed this policy in the seamen's strike, ands he was beaten, just as he is expected to ba beaten in the present case. If the shipowners had been free in the seamen's strike, the thing would have been quickly settled, and the position is exactly the same in th« engineers' strike. The owners would have fcha . ships moving in 24 hours; but Admiral Clark- ' son remains grimly in the way. He is not a type the average Australian loves.