BLOODSHED CERTAIN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11878, 14 January 1914, Page 5

BLOODSHED CERTAIN.

THE TROUBLE EXPLAINED,

SYDNEY, Tuesday. Mr E. Hunt, the \yliip to General Botha's party, is visiting Sydney.

Interviewed, he said he was confident that the South African Government would be able to quell any strike disturbance, but bloodshed in places like Johannesburg was certain, because of the cosmopolitan community. Most of the men had seen war, and they hold life cheap. He hoped that the better instincts of tho strikers would come to the rescue, and that they would try to p et their grievances adjusted legetimately.'

Eegarding the trouble amongst the

railway workers, Mr Hunt explained that during the war,many farm labourers went; to the towii and were disinclined to return. Tho towns were thus filled with unskilled labourers, and the Government, seeing the danger therefrom, discharged the Kaffirs, who had previously done the unskilled labour on the railways, and put these men on at 3s 4d per day, which was equal, with coal and housing, to 5s per day.

After the Union was consummated, said Mr Hunt, Labour unions were formed, and an agitation began for an increase of wages, including the levelling up of unskilled workers on the Cape and Natal lines to what was paid in the Transvaal and Orangia. The Government considered this unpractical, as the cost of living was much higher in the two last-mentioned States, but they agreed to level d(jwn and up. In consequence tho wages in the Transvaal were reduced and those of the Cape and Natal raised. The Transvaalers were dissatisfied, while the Cape and Natal services at present are fairly satisfied. The dissatisfaction increased by the Government introducing piecework in place of day labour in the workshops. Mr Hunt admitted that the men had grievances, but said it would only be a matter of a little time before they would bo redressed. They were being greatly magnified. The railwaymen in the Transvaal and Orangia, apart from those getting 3s 4d a day, were the best paid in the world, at the present time, in railway employ.

Mr Hunt described Mr Poutsma, who was responsible for the formation of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees, as a Hollander and a splendid speaker, who carries the men away to a large extent by his utterances. He is out for trouble, and even if granted all his demands, he would not be satisfied.

Mr Hunt added that the heads of the Federation of Trades are really paid agitators. Mason and Waterstonc arc Australians. Their idea is to have a republic in South Africa again, and the}' wont about inciting the workers and trying to incite the Boers, especially General Hcrtzog's iollowers, to rebellion. Indeed, they pulled down the British flag every time they saw it and put a red one in its place. They tell the natives that the interests of the white and black workers are identical. They must stand together. There is a considerable fear that the Kaffirs might rise now because there is much dissatisfaction over the iaw passed last session empowering the Government to prohibit natives living with whites and vice versa. Unless, says Mr Hunt, the Government takes the precaution to get the natives, of whom there are 300,000 employed in the mines, away from the big centres, there is no doubt that they will break loose. Once in their kraals they are satisfied with the rule of the- white man. The whole trouble comes from boys who go to the mines to work.