MR FRASER BLAMES WATERSIDERS

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 6

MR FRASER BLAMES WATERSIDERS

GRAVITY OF SITUATION RECOGNIZED

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, December 8. Disapproval of the action taken by the men originally responsible for the hold-up of work on the Auckland waterfront was expressed by the Minister of Marine (the Hon. P. Fraser) during the debate on the question in the House of Representatives today. Mr Fraser said the extreme gravity of the situation had been fully recognized by the Government. The Government had acted promptly, Mr Fraser said, and with the assistance of the ship owners and the waterside workers had achieved a settlement in record time. Wherever there were violations of agreements, irrespective of which side was to blame, the Government would not hesitate to take whatever remedial action was necessary. “This particular dispute,” said Mr Fraser, “had all the possibilities of a disaster. The trouble arose through the men refusing to take up work on Friday evening at 6 o’clock.” An Opposition member: You admit they are to blame? “I would say the men were unquestionably wrong,” said Mr Fraser. “I qualify that by stating that I am only expressing an opinion on the facts before me and they reveal that the men who did not take up work at six o’clock on Friday were wrong. Any consideration of the case would have to be started on that basis, but I understand the whole question is being investigated and therefore I defer any final opinion.” Mr Fraser added that the vast majority of the men did not voluntarily engage in the dispute. The dispute spread because the employers, in the interests of discipline, decided to make the Waiana a preference ship. In the circumstances a wholesale condemnation of all the men on the waterfront at Auckland was not justified. There was not a scrap of evidence that the Government had delayed for one moment in taking action. The Government knew there would be trouble perhaps equivalent to the general strike in 1913 if the situation was not handled properly. Force was the only alternative to tile methods the Government had adopted and he was grateful that commonsense had prevailed. The episode, minor as it was, contained all the possibilities of a major industrial conflict. It would be a lesson to all concerned.