THE RIGHT OF LABOR TO STRIKE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16209, 6 December 1926, Page 2

THE RIGHT OF LABOR TO STRIKE.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, —In the present labor unrest and in the prevalence of labor strikes with an outlook of an allied or sympathetic strike from the present high organisation of labor, it is particularly interesting to read in a slight volume form, pub. lished by Messrs. Macmillan, at. 2s od, three emphatic speeches by Sir John Simon of quite notable clearness and force. Sir John Simon is one of the most brilliant of the younger group of Liberals that gathered round Mr. Ascmith at the close of the long Unionist period of being in office in Great Britain, some veal's ago now, and he has been in Asquith Ministries, SolicitorGeneral, and perhaps Attorney-General. Let me quote from Sir John Simon's Speech in the House of Commons on May 11 last, at the close of the general strike, as given on page 20 of the slight volume to which I have referred: " Let me point out to the House that the only possible matter that could ever be disputed on this subject is whether or not the particular proclamation of a strike does or does not come within one perfectly plain constitutional rule. That constitutional rule is as follows: Yon may do what yon think proper in Jtfie exercise of the right to strike against your employer, but you are not only breaking the law, but yon are' inflicting a most serious blow on the whole constitution of tho country if you abuse that undoubted right with totally different effects, so that tho result of what you do. whether you mean it or not, must be that you are patting pressure npon t]w community, the Government, the people, as a whole." I do not sav that what is a : constitutional right in Great Britain is a constitutional right in New Zealand, though what is " one perfectly plain constitutional rule" in Great Britain is certainly interesting to us in New Zealand, when it' is pertinent to the subject -under discussion. Of the clearness and certainty of what Sir John Simon says there is "no shadow of doubt, no possible doubt whatever." Does it cut across the sympathetic strike, of which we have heard so much, and which is such a. serious incident in the industrial life of great overseas Dominions?

Sir John Simon, earlier in the same speech, addressing the House of Commons at a very late hour in the evening, though his views were so important that they had perforce to be listened to then, used these words:—"A strike properly understood is perfectly lawful. The" right to strike is the right of workmen in combination, by pre-arrangement, to give notice to their employers to terminate their engagements, and to withhold' their labor when those notices have expired. Tliat is what the right' to strike is. and I hold and I hope that at this time of day most people hold, that it is an essential part of the rights of the British wage-earner that he should have the right to strike and that it ought never to he taken away from him."

Sir John Simon spoke of the situation* being much governed by the Trades Disputes Act of 1906, and his reasoning was this, that before a strike there must be a trades dispute between

the employers and the employed which is the cause of the strike; that a central body cannot lawfully call a strike in any other trade and union, unless the rules and by-laws of that other trade and union are first complied with; and how can those rules and by-laws bo complied with, if there is no trade-dis-pute in that other trade, and unions I understand, that Sir John Simon's view is that such an' extended or sympathetic strike amounts to an infringement of the. "perfectly plain constitutional rule " with which I have opened this letter. I sliould like your readers who are interested in the subject to read the speeches to which I have referred, and to consider whether that is the application of this distinguished Yorkshire Member of Parliament's speeches, and how far his conclusions are applicable to Conditions in New Zealand.—l am, etc.. CRUSADER. Tolaga Bay. December 4, 1926.'