INDUSTRIAL PEACE IMPOSSIBLE

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17534, 16 October 1928, Page 7

INDUSTRIAL PEACE IMPOSSIBLE

INSIDE VIEW OF SEAMEN'S UNION. HOWLS RAISED FOR A GENERAL STRIKE. AGITATORS ACTIVE ON THE WATERFRONT. MEN MESMERISED AND READY FOR MISCHIEF. (Dy Teleßrr&ph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) 'Australian Press Association!. (Received October 16, 11.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, October 16. An inside view of the Seamen's Union has been furnished the Herald by a member, who says industrial peace is impossible while industry is conducted on present lines. Friday's meeting of the Union, which resulted in the delay of the Ulimaroa, was called for the purpose of ascertaining members' attitude towards the watersiders' dispute. After Ave hours acrimonious debate, heated interjections, and scurrilous personalities it was decided that all ships should be manned, until the Australian Council of the Trades Unions and the waterside workers adopted a uniform policy, but it is a significant fact that a large majority strenuously opposed a peaceful policy though no principle was at stake. Howls were frequently raised for a general strike and jeers greeted a plea that certain ships be exempted from the proposed struggle on the ground that their crews would be sacrificed in vain. A general stoppage was indeed a near thing, and it is hopeless for the community to expect consideration or peace from an organisation which treats its own members so callously. Only the influence and eloquence of the officials and certain members after a hard struggle persuaded the rank and flle that a strike under the circumstances would be sheer insanity. The correspondent blames the general "pickup" system, under which hundreds of men congregate and the idlers arc frequently harangued by foreigners with synthetic names, and flourish red handkerchiefs. They are upon the Union books, but have no seamen's discharges. Added to these are a mob of orators from the. domain and Communists. One German agitator has not been to sea for twenty years. All these are capable of leaving idle men mesmerised ready for any mischief, and they do. The shipping industry is overcrowded and millions sterling are lost annually to the community through insensate strikes. The remedy should lie in selecting the few thousand men required, licencing them, and guaranteeing more constant employment, also by letting loafers and industrial anarchists find occupations. MOSCOW CONSIDERING THE POSITION. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO THE STRIKERS. ANXIOUS TO FOMENT STRIFE IN NEW ZEALAND (Received October 16, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 15. The Times' Riga correspondent reports that a special sitting of the executive of the Bureau of the Proflntern, considered "the present revolutionary situation in connection with the new strike wave" and what changes were advisable in the methods to be employed to stimulate the strike movement in Australia and elsewhere. The financial report states that Moscow has already sent the Australian strikers £9OOO. A great part, of the sitting was devoted to consideration of the prospects in New Zealand, where the most revolutionary elements arc concentrated in the Sailors' and Miners' Unions, which for several years have maintained relations, and it is now Imped will affiliate with the Proflntern.