WISTFUL EYES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1914, 24 November 1913, Page 6

WISTFUL EYES.

WATCHING THE CARGO SLINGS. Though there is nothing to attract tho striking watersider to the waterside, he .finds it a matter of extreme difficulty to keep away. Most of ihcm turn up to tho wharf entrance some time during the morning to see if "thore is anything doing. For f he last week there has' been nothing doing, and now even tho orator ana the Watersiders' Band have got tired of tho daily assemblies from which nothing but "hot air" eventuated. It is said that tho fraud worked upon the minds of many of the strikers by the announcement that the Moana, bound to San Francisco, had returned to Worser i3ay, disgusted a good many of tho decent class of watersido workers, which class is beginning to realise that many of. tho statements of the mob orators are on a par with the Moana canard, which was so speedily exploded by the wireless message from the vessel.

Now that the' Post Office Square is being kept reasonably clear for traffic,, the waiting watersider has betaken Himself to new quarters. On Saturday morning little mobs of strikers were to be seen standing in Jervois Quay apposite the spaces betw;een tho Harbour Board's sheds, somewhat wistfully watching the slings of cargo' -.being lowered from one of the big Tyser liners. What precisely must have been their thoughts could not bo said, but one can easily divine that the sight of so many Homo vessels discharging cargo - 'without their aid or by their -leave must appear to them in the light of a miracle. Before the membership of the new union had reached tliroe figures, the strike leaders freely stated that the.-authorities would never be able to got enough men to work the port, and that tho report that good work was being done on the. Atlienic was all bluff. Now that the membership of the union has passed the 1000 mark, and the Athenic is speeding on her way to the Thames with a full cargo, the t futility of the strike must he realisedjby all watersiders capable of the nower r of reasoning for themselves. What terms they hope to make with the employer's by- hanging _ out uny longer it is impossible to conceive—they simply wait and wait, with hopes growing dimmer and dimmer, whilst, tho talker (who does" not work) assures theih all,of the magnificent solidarity of the working classes!