IN TIME OF STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 181, 30 January 1912, Page 7

IN TIME OF STRIKE.

DUTY OF TERRITORIALS. NO "FIRE-LOW" TACTICS. Auckland, January 2(5. The statement made by General Godley that ''the Government of New Zealand would never contemplate the use of territorials in the event of an industrial strike, as the army has been created only for the defence of the Dominion against foreign aggression," cannot be. taken as having disposed of a feeling of uneasiness on the subject still entertained by the laboring classes. Colonel Allan Bell has put the case pretty strongly in a letter written tothe Prime Minister, a copy of which he has sent to the Prime Minister of Australia. Colonel Bell comments on the amassing of wealth by the few at the expense of millions on the verge of starvation, and says it must be recognised that when every other means has failed the strike is the only lever left in the hands of the masses that can be used for the purpose of obtaining their just rights. "When we recognise the truth of the above statements of fact," he proceeds, "we must simultaneously recognise that, in the case of the workers resorting to \ the strike, the citizen army of this country or of our Empire should not be used for the purpose of quelling these industrial disturbances. For that reason I would urge that you take steps to have an amendment ma,de in the Defence' Act exempting the members of our citizen army from that duty. If you ask me point-blank if I think that our citizen soldiers would respond to an order to deal with strikers, I must frankly say I do not think that they would, and the Government would be placed in the most unfortunate position of having not only to deal with these strikers, but with our citizen soldiers who had, with ample justification, refused to obey orders to shed their brothers' blood when those brothers were unfortunately compelled by our economic system to go on strike. "The orders given by Colonel Tom Price to 'Fire low and lay them out' { during the Australian strike in 1890 1 would find no response from our citizen 1 soldiers of to-day. The great class, struggle wnich is almost at hand, not only in New Zealand but throughout the civilised world, prompts me to send you this communication in the hope that "the Government will take immediate steps to have the Defence Act altered on the lines suggested—relieve our citizen army from a duty which they have no right to be called upon to perform, and] to clear the way for that forward movement in the march of humanity which it is the duty of everyone who loves his country to assist by every means in his p'ower."