UNREST IN BRITAIN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1387, 13 March 1912, Page 6

UNREST IN BRITAIN.

EFFECT ON EXPORT TRADE,

A local business man has received from a good source in London tho following gloomy account, in the course of a letter dated February 2, of tho industrial unrest in Britain:— "Tho situation as to shipping continues to, give causo for disquiet, and creates much trouble. In Glasgow the port is practically at a standstill, tho men out of hand, and ignoring their official leaders. In Liverpool there still continues much confusion. In London some thousands of men camo out yesterday at noon, apparently because some" tally clerks rcfusod to work with non-union men. In tho Albert Decks, where the New Zealand steamers load, the confusion is not to bo described. Tho Turakina made a loading of sorts, but much left behind. Tho Athenic, delayed in discharge by fitful working of the men, took her loading berth late, and sails to-day or to-morrow leaving n shed full of stuff behind, and a mass of barges undischarged. The basin is full of barges, and, whilst they get in, owing to tho block they cannot get to the vessels for which they tiro intended, and tho steamers, with a limited .time to load, havo just to get hold of what comes easiest to hand. Goods delivered by laud late are jammed in front of earlier arrivals, and all attempt at sequence is abandoned. Wo have had a man in almost continuous attendants for weeks past, and something has been accomplished, and we are better c.ff than most of our neighbours. . . . The Port of London appears to have no master mind to grasp tho problem, but trifle with it like a lot of old women. Knilways short of trucks add to tho confusion, and it is often difficult to trace trucks of goods: they get lost touch of altogether. The shipping company has labour troubles with tho London staff, and the service is disorganised and uncertain. The men in the docks are sulky and insolent, and aro working infamously, and (alk of another general strike in tho summer, and the shadow of a coal strike hangs over all. "Employers aro supine nnd cowardly; compromise will not heal this wound, it must be fought with vigour. Heads will get broken, but others have rights beside tho.scum of the East End—too ignc.rant to respect any argument but force, and too dishonest to abide by any agreement it may suit their humour to break. Concession to mob law never brought peace, and it never will, and. before long, mob orators of the Lloyd-George type, with their promises of 'refreiliiiig fruit,' arc preaching the gospel that if may he plucked from the orchard another has planted and laboured for. Soon the plucking will start, and these people with their High Priest with ,£s!>oo e. year will be the ILr.st to howl for protection. 1 see (here is trouble in Brisbane, and that your own traimvnv men aro out—'refreshing fruit' cultivated by your sentimental city fathers, I assume."