SOLDIERS AND I.W.W.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7913, 2 August 1917, Page 4

SOLDIERS AND I.W.W.

HOSTILE DEMONSTRATIONS IN SYDNEY. If a supine Government cannot be roused to action by the open defiance of the I.W.W.—which goes regularly into the public places and frankly talks sedition—public indignation may yet rid the community of this pest (writes a Sydney correspondent). Opposition to recruiting is only one of the many criminal activities in which this organisation engages, but it is this which has greatly angered the troops. Only the intervention of the police on Sunday saved the I.W.W. men from a thorough trouncing. The soldiers, both recruits and returned men, are on the warpath. The I.W.W. agents are among the picturesque people who address the crowd in the Domain on Sundays. Last Sunday, about 100 soldiers took a hand in the proceedings. They formed into a solid column, in fours, and marched firmly through the middle of the I.W.W. audience. When they came through again to open country, they wheeled about, and marched back through the crowd. Every time the sedition-mongers began to offend the good air with their facile phrases, the soldiers cleared a track through the heart of the crowd. Twice the speakers were unceremoniously spilled off their perch. The crowd snarled, and looked ugly, but the solid line of khaki, while it offered no violence, looked as if it would receive none. Then the police and military police interfered, and the soldiers were persuaded to leave the Domain. They marched through the streets to the railway station, followed by thousands of people and dispersed. There was an uglier demonstration in the evening. A rumor went around that a returned man had been brutally ill-treated by the I.W.W. A large crowd of soldiers and civilians marched from the railway station to Georgestreet, and demonstrated before the Soldiers’ Club. Here their numbers were greatly augmented, and suddenly they marched off, aching for trouble, for the I.W.W. headquarters in Sussex street. As they went, they gathered stones and tore the palings off fences. Luckily for the 1.W.W., the crowd found the street leading to the I.W.W. roms guarded by a big force of foot, mounted, and military police. The crowd, which numbered thousands, was not readily persuaded to give up its prey. There was a furious demonstration, and stones were flung freely, some striking the police. But the latter were very calm and tactful, and gradually broke up the crowd. One little detachment, however, found an unguarded right-of-way which led to near the rear of the I.W.W. premises, and the building received a fusilade of stones. This was the worst that happened, but it was 11 p.m. before the police persuaded the demonstrators to go home.

During the evening, not an I.W.W. man was seen. Therein, they at least showed wisdom. The feeling against these plotters is very marked, and growing, and it would be in their interests, as well as for the public good, if the whole organisation were promptly and completely suppressed.