FOLDED ARMS STRIKE

Otago Witness, Issue 3610, 22 May 1923, Page 19

FOLDED ARMS STRIKE

BELGIAN PUBLIC' SERVANTS. A SOCIALIST MOVEMENT. BRUSSELS, May 14. The strike of railway-men and postal employees has become so serious that the Government has decided to follow the example that M. Briand set France before the war. The Government has issued orders for the mobilisation of the 1915 to 1922 classes of railwaymen, who will thus be compelled to work the railways as soldiers. LONDON, May 14. Tlie Brussels correspondent of the Daily Chronicle says that the strike is more a political than a trade union movement. The National Union is merely a. machine in the hands of the Socialist politicians, who are seeking to regain their lost authority. GOVERNMENT ACTION QUESTION ED. BRUSSELS, May 17. The strike of railwaymen and postal workers is becoming rapidly more serious. The trains running between Brussels and Antwerp were unexpectedly stopped at 10 o’clock last night, leaving the passengers in the lurch. They were told to alight and walk. The news caused excitement in Brussels where 100 people were wanting to return to Antwerp rushed to the station only to find that there were no trains departing. With’n an hour every taxicab was requisitioned. Similar scenes were enacted at Antwerp where thousands of people who were wanting to get to Brussels were stranded. r t is feared that the trains between Belgium and France and Holland will stop to-day. Women interviewed the Minister of Railways urging the initiation of negotiations. He refused to take any action until the. men resume work. Soldiers wearing steel helmets and with bayonets fixed lined the public gallery of the Chamber when the Socialist Deputy, M. Vandervelde, challenged the legality of the Government’s decision to mobilise the soldiers to work the railways. The President of the Chamber, hammering his desk amid stormy scenes, threatened to suspend the session. The Minister of National Defence declared that tlie Government was within its legal rights in protecting the economic

life of the community. The House could put someone else in his place il it opposed his policy. '1 he Antwerp dockers refuse to handle goods from the militarist railwaymen. No goods are arriving at (Jstend and work at Liege is coining to a standstill. Large orders have already been lust. Two hundred and liftv volunteer postmen are handling the letters in Antwerp and it is hoped to have nearly a normal service in three or four dais.