A STRANGE STRIKE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 47, 1 April 1914, Page 7

A STRANGE STRIKE.

AT PUTILOFF WORKS. THIRTY THOUSAND MEN OUT. "Times" and "Sydney Sun" Services. , (Received April 1, 8.30 a.m.) ST. PETERSBURG, March 31. Thirty thousand men at the Putiloff works have struck as a protest against the poisoning of women in a cigarette factory, which the labour leaders cynically ascribe to the masters. The. officials are puzzled, and cannot account for the occurrence.

I Most. of the Russian field artillery. ■is manufactured at .the• Putiloff works with the help of the plans supplied by v the French Creusot arms factory and under the supervision of French engineers sent from the Creusot works. France was very much excited recently over the reportec}' purchase of . the Putiloff armament works by the German firm of Krupp, and in this connection the '/Figaro" said: "On January 26 an Anglo-German syndicate, „ consisting of Messrs Krupp. and the Deutsche Bank, and Messrs Vickers, offered the Putiloff Works an immediate advance of 20 million roubles. The Putiloff works, which are building the whole of the artillery for the Russian Government, had been obliged considerably to increase its capital, and negotiations had therefore been opened with a Russian banking house which has close relations and the Anglo-German syndicate was constituted for the purpose of furnishing the necessary capital.'-' Commenting on this report, Reuter stated that there was no foundation for the suggestion of any co-operation between Krupp's and Vickers'. On , February 2a. leading Russian newspaper, the ''Novoe Vreniya," in defiance of the strict. censorship, published a letter declaring that the Putilolff scare was sadly-belated, inasmuch as German designers, engineers, and workmen have long been engaged in building 6n the Neva and elsewhere vessels of precisely those classes on which Russia relies for the defence of the Baltic. There were at that time building at the so-called private Putiloff wharf, for which the Putiliff works are responsible, two light cruisers and eight torpedo boats to the designs and by the engineers and workmen of Messrs Blohm and Voss and the Vulkan firm respectively. The same German firms were also building at Reval, the "Novoe Vreniya " said, two cruisers and six torpedo boats, and the St. Petersburg metal works eight torpedo boats, while at Riga the Schichau firm had in hand nine torpedo boats. However matters may be officially represented, said the journal,. Russia's naval defences in the Baltic are, in fact, being created by Germans.