STRIKE COMMITTEE'S MANIFESTO.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14843, 8 December 1913, Page 8

STRIKE COMMITTEE'S MANIFESTO.

The Strike Committee has issued a manifesto in which the following occurs:— "The employers have now made the rod for their own backs, and if they would own the truth their backs are pretty sore now. Their long game of bluff "will bo countered with stern determination from our side. They have not any weak-kneed body to deal with, but a body of strong, intelligent, and determined men who are prepared to fight to the bitter end. Our men are cheerful "and happy. They have plenty to eat and drink. Their motto now is written down* in capital letters: 'No surrender of our natural right to manage our own affairs.' •'We have established a strike camp in May's road, off Papantii road. A good number of our men are now commrtibly installed there. They have everything possible in the way of eating and drinking and comfortable beds. Concerts are to bo arranged, and games and matches of ail descriptions are to be carried into effect. Any photographer is invited to go and take a photograph of this really fino body of workers. There they will find tho true worker who is willing to stop in his comfortable camp until the employers come to their senses. Yesterday two ladies drove out to tho camp in their motor-car and took afternoon tea to the boys, thus proving that tho 'specials' are not the only body of' men that got afternoon tea taken to their camp. We invite any citiren of Christchnrch or elsewhere to visit the camp. Let them judge for themselves. Let them study the matter over quietly after their visit, and see if they honestly think a fine body of clean-living men like they certainly are would be prepared to have a holiday up there indefinitely if their cause was not a just one."

Mr F. Lurch, of the Strike Committee, writes a lengthy letter to tho editor, in the course of which he says:—"'Pho Emloyers' Federation of New Zealand have been howling to the zenith for a secret ballot to be taken in connexion with the present industrial crisis. Now, sir, I desire to take tho opportunity of suggesting that the executive .of tho Employers' Federation at once take a secret ballot of the parties affiliated to that Federation as to the advisability of accepting the offer made by the United Federation of Labour that the condition of the present industrial crisis be submitted to Sir Joshua Williams for arbitration. If the employers are in any way consistent,they will bo compelled to accept the above suggestion. We note by reports • appearing in this morning's paper that, the Employers' Association of Invercarcill aro in favour of Sir Joshua Williams being appointed as arbitrator to settle the dispute, nnd a stronglyworded resolution has been forwarded to the central body of the Employers' Federation in Wellington, protesting against their refusal to agree to Mr Hujrhes's proposal as to submitting the •whole matter to arbitration. We realise that both Mr Hughes and the Invercarcargill Employers' Association are beginning to see that the employers, like tho tlog in the fable, are losing the substanqe *o grab the shadow. They are expending thousands of pounds in endeavourinc to force the workers to submit to thfijr tyrranical attitude, whiVh. if accomplished, can only mean added unrest in the ranks of the workers."