CLASH WITH POLICE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 434, 6 May 1932, Page 5

CLASH WITH POLICE

TRAM ATTACKED WITH STICKS AND STONES ACTION OF 300 STRIKERS PUT TO FLIGHT BY 500 SPFXIALS , : Press Association. —Copyright. | CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. Three hundred men attacked the first Sumner tram with sticks •and stoned in Moorehouse Avenue ; this morning, but were taken by, surprise and put to flight by 500 specials, who dashed from the car sheds. Twelve rioters were arrested. The service continues uninterruptedly, and all is now quiet. ; STRIKERS AND POLICE AT GRIPS ON MAN KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. A mob smashed windows in a tram before special constables in steel helmets and carrying batons appeared at the double. Then the crowd retreated.

One man who attempted to strike a policeman with a bar Avas knocked unconscious. Others were prodded in the ribs with batons and forced to disperse amid much outcry. •A tramway employee going to work was assaulted, but was rescued by the police. At the corner of Fitzgerald Avenue and Ferry .Road a piece, of gelignite three inches.long;.was found on the line by the police and removed. It was sufficient to derail one tram. One thousand specials are available for duty to-day and will be reinforced to-morrow. ONLY TWO MEN NOT ON STRIKE, SAYS UNION RATIONING SCHEME STUMBLING BLOCK TO NEGOTIATIONS

"There are only two men who are not with the strikers," Mr. E. Snow, secretary to the Tramwaymen's Union, declared on Wednesday, after a meeting at which the strike question was considered by the men for several hours.

Mr. Snow : :made the following statement setting cut the position from the point of view of the union: "The position is that the representatives of the union attended at the office of the board this afternoon and exhausted every possible avenue ot settling the dispute. The beard itself was absolutely adamant that the adoption of its rationing scheme had to. be a feature of the settlement, and as the dispute was wholly on the queston of victimisation, that matter could not be entertained —until such time, at all events, as the victim! sation question had been settled. "Various proppsals were submitted by the board as a basis of settlement but in each due this question of the adoption of its rationing scheme was the stumbling block. The board refused to settle the question of victimisation without this provision, and it was utterly impossible for tli-a union's representatives to accept that.

"The decision of the men's meeting on'Sunday morning was that victim Isation had to be settled first, the nonces of : dismissal withdrawn, and thq men already dismissed reinstated before bo any further negotiation? *'" ./?' USE OF WORD "SCAB" IS % .* ANYONE USING IT IS LIABLE TO PROSECUTION Quite a number of persons, women as well as men, have been heard addressing the volunteer tramwaymeii as "scabs." Such persons, apparently, are not aware that the word is banned from the vocabulary during a strike, at any rate. Superintendent D. J. Cummings said on Wednesday that persons using the word were leaving themselves open to prosecution, and action would be taken against anyone heard using the term.