GROWING UNREST

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23317, 28 September 1945, Page 5

GROWING UNREST

N.S.W. Industrial Stoppages Move For Settlemen’ Advocated • X.z.p A Spc.< ..rr»)«>ndent (7.30 pin > SYDNEY. Sept. 27. Among all political parties and in all sections of the community a growing uneasiness is being j aroused by the extent of the current stoppages in New South Wales and i by the complete disregard so often ! displayed for any authority, whether that of the Government, employer or trade union. As the , “Sydney Morning Herald” says, the long war has left a legacy of strain and maladjustment in industry, but the apparent helplessness of Ministers before the prolonged strikes is an outrage on ordered democracy. "Direct action” on the coalfields end on the wharves is robbing the country of vital day-to-day necessities in coal and shipping. Stoppages on the waterfront have paralysed dozens of ships and cargoes urgently needed by soldiers and civilians. The Government possesses full powers of compulsion, if it cares to use them, but Mr J. B. Chifley (Prime Minister) has stated that he refused to crucify the workers—meaning apparently the strikers. In this he ignores the fact that those who are being crucified are the rest of the Community. Mr Chifley has been taken to task by the newspapers for his declaration that he would be no party to crucifying the workers. Tire Sydney “Sun" in a leading article headed Who is Crucified” says: "It locks very much as if the hundreds of thousands of workers in New South Wales are being crucified by the few thousands who refuse to carry on essential public services. “It may be admitted." adds the “Sun.” “that the job of intervention which may challenge the whole structure of unionism and cause a struggle for power between industrial unionism and the Government is one upon which any government would be loath to enter. The Government is the Government of the whole people and the alternative to such a struggle is nothing less than the abdication of power to industrial pressure groups.” Conference Proposed The proposal made in the House of Representatives by Sir Earle Page that all parties should meet on a nonpolitical basis to discuss the current industrial unrest is strongly supported by the Sydney Press. Tire “Sun” says that, the suggestion of a council of all parties to control an industrial situation that has got out of hand and is fast running to chaos is sound and reasonable. The "Daily Telegraph” considers that we probably have not seen the worst yet of industrial violence “that is bleeding Australia white” and says that the consequences are so potentially dangerous to our whole future that no preiudice or doctrinal difference should discourage political leaders, the leaders of industry or the leaders of trade unions, from exerting every effort to bring about a meeting at which the fundamental problems outstanding In industry could be discussed frankly and with the honest, mutual hone of finding some solution. The “Dailv Telegraph” adds that, leaving aside the rights or wrongs of the grievances which urged them into this large-scale industrial disorder..the men must surely see that no economy however rich and resilient can long stand th pressure of wastage, interruption and discord of such magnitude.