AGITATOR'S DECEPTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1912, 21 November 1913, Page 9

AGITATOR'S DECEPTION.

• ] "STRIKE CAUSE HOPELESSLY c LOST." 1 (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) j Auckland, November 20. c "Keep up tho fight—we are winning, t Do not behove the Press,", was a tele- 1 gram from Auckland read to a mooting t of tho men on strike at Hiintlj, and is i a fair sample of the mothods employed r by the strike agitators to k(.ep the men ] out. XJnfortunutelj: for the £\rike Coin- t

mittce, thoro is not the smallest shadow of doubt that over 3000 men have returned to work, and more arc going back daily. At the present rate ot defection from the ranks of the strikers, the. agitators will bo all that are left, and presumably about twenty of them will hold tho fort and announce to the world that they are still winning. The most unbelievable deception has been practised on the various unions to induce them to strike, but the men have learned a few hard facts, and have discovered that their agitator idols' wild and extravagant promises have vanished into thin air. "Not a special policeman will ever "be allowed to set foot on the wharves" and "not a bnb oE cargo will be lifted" wore the first announcements, and they were really believed by the crowd which listened to the Federation orators. The capture of the wharves by specials took a lot of explaining away,'but it was put down to the cowardly subterfuge of the polico in drafting' tho 'specials into tho city before daylight, and with much vivid description'of the methods of the Government, tho polico, and tho "bloated capitalists" that story was swallowed. _ "They may 'have tho wharves" shrieked the orators, "but no cargo will bo put on board. That boast received a nasty jolt, but, "undismayed apparently, tho strike leaders yelled that no boat would ever leave the wharves,' for sailors and firomen to a man would come ashore. Now the ocean traffic is going on steadily, so the leaders have fallen back on tho cry, "We are winning—don't believe the Press." Tho plain fact is that tho strike hero has come to an ignominious and inglorious collapse, and it is only a question of a short timo w ! hcn it will be over. There is much talk about tho tramway men refusing to go back when the coal supplies are landed and the cars arc ready to start running, but it is only talk. Just as the authorities took possession of tho wharves, and just as cargo was worked, so tho cars will resume running, and tho last prop of tho strike leaders will 'have broken. , Tho militant section is trying to work up a display of ugly temper, hut the attempt' is hopeless, and the strike causo is utterly and hopelessly lost.