TROOPS SMASH STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 5

TROOPS SMASH STRIKE

PORTUGUESE UPHEAVAL STRIKERS FORCED TO WORK CAVALRY .CLEARS STREETS PROTEST AT WAGES TAXES By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Lisbon, June 6. Drastic Government action smashed a general strike called as a protest to the new 2 per cent, tax on wages and salaries. Troops forced the striking drivers and conductors from tneir homes at the point of the bayonet and compelled them to operate trams, and they baked 60,000 loaves of bread in the army cookhouse and distributed them in order to defeat the bakers’ strike. Cavalry, with drawn swords, cleared the streets. One was killed and many wounded in street fighting. A soldier was blown to pieces by an explosion at a power station. Although the strike is broken, public opinion may compel a modification of the tax, which is used for unemployment relief, for which beggars are eligible. It has resulted in a 50 per cent, increase in mendicants, who pester pedestrians and invade shops and houses demanding alms.