CHAOS AT THE DOCKS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1203, 11 August 1911, Page 5

CHAOS AT THE DOCKS.

BUSINESS AT A STANDSTILL.,,. EXCITING SCENES. London, August 9. A general strike of carters has been ordered, involving a further ten thousand riien. • Tho strikers overturned carls contain-

ing meat and wool while leaving tho docks. Tho cold storage porters have struck. Exciting scenes occurred at Smithfield, the strikers roughly handling salesmen who were attempting to removo carcasses. A number of trucks wero overturned. The fruit brought by the' steamer Runic is undischarged. All "tho foreign fruit trade of Covent Garden is suspended. Business on tho Corn Exchange, Smithfield, and Tooley Street, is practically at a standstill. Tho olerical staff at Waterloo gcods sheds have struck, refusing to perform carters' duty. Mr. Costing, secretary of the Transport Workers' Federation, anticipates a speedy settlement as the outcome of a conference with Ifr. Askwith, of tho Board of Trade. Chaos reigus at the Liverpool docks, quays, and stations. Perishable goods are rotting. Strikers demolished fish boxes and scattered the contents, and looted a beer wagon and a milk van. Tho passenger porters and vanmen have struck. A hundred workmen at the Port Sunlight Mills have struck for higher wages. Tho stevedores ask for an all-round increase of 25 per cent., giving at least 7s. 6d. daily, with double pay on bank holidays and* King's Birthday, and for work to cease at noon on Saturdays. Upon representations made by tho municipal authorities, Mr. Gosling has arranged to allow the resumption of barging the city dust and refuse, which threatened to become a groat public nuisance owing to the hot weather. Five hundred Smithfield meat-carters have -struck. The strike o< Manchester engineers has rendered 20,000 men idle. Four thousand railway men at Liverpool have struck. Quantities of meat, butter, and perishable produce cannot be moved. The fruiterers are suffering severely. POSITION OF NEW ZEALAND CARGOES. A QUESTION IN PARLIAMENT. Just before the House of Representatives adjourned last evening Mr. W C Buchanan stated that intelligence 'had reached him-that one of tho principal snipping .companies had received a eablo message from its London office stating that sFcaniers cannot discharge at and that the Onawa has forty thonsand carcass of mutton still aboard. There will possibly be a difficulty shortly in providing coal. . Mr. Buchanan said it was difficult to Y « !, the Government could do, or whether they could do anything. His nurposs was to ,- -k whether they could cablo to London to get authentic information ns to what the real position was. It was needless to point out how serious the position would be if a shorrago of coal made it impossible to keep frozen, cargo in condition. , Tho Hon. ,T A. Millar replying, in the absence of the Acting-Primo Minister, stated that the Government had not received any uiformation on the subject, and ho did not know that it could do anything by cabling. Tho Government was not directly interested, and could only cablo to the Imperial Government. Mr. Buchanan suggested that a cablo might be sent to tho High Commissioner Xhe Minister ap-eetl to send a cable to the High Commissioner asking him to tango tho nosition and supply particulars as far as possible.