INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 145, 11 August 1911, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

BlU'jJSli STB IK MS. SEIUOUS I)J S'! I ■ BBANCES. By Electric Telegraph—Copyright United Press Association. London, August 10. -Hu; driver of a van ni roe Minoru's lived a revolver, sbghtK wmimiinjr a. boy, owing to tho stnkors endeavouring to prevent Ids progress. The driver was arrested. There are serious disturbances at the East India Docks. The poJ'ce ciicw their batons and charged the mobs. Mounted police, four abreast, biuke the mob. Many were bruised, and were treated at*the I'oplar Hospital. Similar baton charges took i lace at Deptford and Broadway. Eight arrests were made at Sarinfield"oAviug to attack-;: upon sihmien, under the protection of the police, attempting to handle the moat themselves. The employers are willing to recognise tho Stevedores’ Union and to concede their demands. Mr. Askwith’s conference with the liglrtennon and coalmen is adjourned, jnul it is understood the carters will join the conference to-day. lb is estimated that 20,000 dockers and 06,000 carmen, 7000 lightermen and engineers, 6000 coal porters, 8000 stevedores, 8000 labourers, and 1200 porters at Billingsgate Fish Market, and additional unregistered workers, making over 100,000, are on strike. A hundred and fifty vessels, laden with meat, wheat, butter, and fruit, are lying in the Thames undischargeablo.

Ono Smithfiekl salesman states lie has 122,000 carcases of ISew Zealand mutton and land) at the docks a waiting delivery. Another says ho has cooled to i\cw Zealand to withhold shipments. The (treat Western, the Great Northern, and the Midland railways’ carmen are supporting the strike. 'Hie South-Eastern Railway is tillable to deliver 21,000 cases ol Tasmanian apples, which are rapidly deteriorating. All thoroughfares loading to the docks are picketed. Carmen are picketing the Goswell Road. They unharnessed and cut the harness of Pickford’s carts and Paterson’s van for halt an hour, and hand-to-hand lighting between dockers and police occurred at Wooloy _ Street. The strikers hid in the side streets, and when the carts appeared to collect butter, a whistle summoned the strikers, who surrounded the carmen, who were given the option of withdrawing or having their carts overturned.

The police are powerless. There were similar scones in Leadeniiall Street and Aldgate.

(Received 11. 8.5 a.m.) London, August 10. The strike situation in Liverpool is threatening. Pickets prevent goods leaving the docks and railway depots. The goods service of the district is held up, and the passenger service is dislocated. 'There have been numerous disorders and outrages, including the overturning of a brewer’s dray, knocking in the bungs of the casks, and distributing beer to the mob. _ The Lord Mayor and Chief Constable of Liverpool conferred with the prominent loaders of the strikers with a view to preserving peace and obviating the necessity of utilising outside forces. Thomas Commons, secretary to tno Society of Railway .Men, declared that discontent was.steadily growing in all ,/racks. The grievances wore inunoons, and in particular there was complete dissatisfaction at the work of the Conciliation Boards,' which, throughout, had favoured employers. Ho said it was also exceedingly difficult to get decisions put into operation. The combinations and pooling arrangements of great lines_ were affecting workers adversely. The situation had arisen spontaneously, ihe union was not organised to sti ike. Non-unionists were receiving strike pay. Half the strikers wore non-un-ionists. Mr. Thomas Commons added; “London may ho completely isolated and food supplies cut off.” The London Omnibus Company lias withdrawn one-third of the onimouses owing to a shortage of petrol, iheio is only three days’ supply remaining The steamer Turakina landed her passengers at Plymouth. (Received 11, 9.15 a.m.) London, August 10. Though the London dockers,_ carmen, and lightermen strike is no worse, all the Aldershot command is moving to London forthwith, the cavairy dragoons by road, and the lutantry by rail. They have boon provided with "ball cartridges.

AUSTRALIA. THE SUGAR STRIKE. Sydney, August 10. Tlio tension of the sugar strike is somewhat relaxed, on the strength of advices from Brisbane that the State Treasurer and the sugar mill owners have agreed to attend the conference asked for yesterday. The conference takes place at 4 o’clock to-morrow. A wire received from the secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Union, who is attending the Brisbane Conference, announces that the conference is arranged, and asks the ioydney waterside workers not to stop workin«r general cargo vessels, as this will have an important bearing on to-mor-row’s conference. Despite the. reassuring tone of tne Brisbane advices there is no cessation of preparation. It transpires that a secret conference to-day decided that all unionists will act simultaneously, and not in sections, in the event of to-morrow’s conference proving futile and trouble arising. Sugar to-day advanced £1 a ton all round. “ . , , The view is expressed in la hour circles here that the Queensland strikers arc not likely to accept the Wages Board or its award mentioned tins morning, as the Board was promulgated by the Free Labourers’ Union. Another difficulty in the way of settlement is that free labourers arc on-e-aged to take the place of strikers, and unionists are not likely to agree to work alongside hem. (Received 11, 9.15 a.m.) Sydney, August 11.

At the Stock Exchange yesterday Colonial Sugar Company shares declined to 22s 6d.