HELPING THE ENEMY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3046, 5 April 1917, Page 4

HELPING THE ENEMY

■ We are told to-day that,, following on tho "go-slow" allegations, the miners at the two fjState mines and at the Paparoa and.Blackball mines on tho West Coast have discontinued worfe altogether, and the mines are idle.. It is not yet certain whether this is the beginning of a straightout strike or merely a temporary and brief cessation of work by way of formal protest. Whatever the reason, and however long or short the timo may bo for which tho mines remain idle, the effect must prejudice New Zealand. in. the, part her people are endeavouring.to play in the war, and so far as it does tins it is helping the enemy. .There is a. coal shortage at the present, time which threatens to gravely, interfere with inland and overseas transport, and that shortage will be •accentuated by the stoppage of production at the mines in. question. Our transports and our warships re-, quire New Zealand coal, and must havo it at any cost. The mines which are idle employ over 800 men, and yiold in normal times about one-third of tho coal produced on the West Coast, and a little less than one-third of the bituminous and pitch coal produced in the whole Dominion. It is stated that an endeavour is being made to extend the trouble to other mines. It is well that the public should realise what this means. If the mince .are permitted to remain idle through the miners refusing to work, the country will be faced with a coal famine which will cripple almost every important industry in the Dominion. It will strike at our national effioiency,' injure thousands of people, who will be thrown out of employment, dislocate the railway and steamship services, hamper overseas transport, and in a multitude of ways serve the cause of our enemies and militate against our own. The law has taken into account the grave consequences associated with any interference with the output of coal from our mines, and tho coal-mining industry (owners and employees alike) has been declared under the War Regulations "an industry essential to the public welfare." This gives those engaged in the industry certain privileges, but it also imposes obligations. A strike or lock-out in the coal-mining industry becomes in war time a "seditious strike" or "seditious lockout" as the case may be, and thore are heavy .penalties for encouraging, inciting, or participating in such strike or look-out, or any movement having the effect of a strike or lockout. The safety or the ir.terrsfe of the whole country may bo imperilled by such a strike or lock-out, and so tho offence is properly treated as a crime against the nation. It must be obvious to everyone that any step at the present time calculated to interfere with the coal supply must be regarded as something more than a local or sectional issue. It is a national question, and if it is true that the miners engaged at certain collieries have determined to embark on an industrial struggle in war timo, then it must be clearly understood that they are not morcly fighting the mine-owners, or the Government, but that they aw fighb- , jnjj their That is tho plain.

and outstanding fact in the situation. The stoppage of coal-produc-tion, if permitted to continue, can hold up our transports and our foodstuffs for the- Motherland more effectively than German submarines can do ifc. At the moment the information available as to the position at the West Coast mines is not full enough to warrant a definite opinion as to tho probable' outcome. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that the miners should have it made clear to them that in curtailing tho coal output they are fighting- againefc the interests of their own country in tho war, and helping the enemy. Also that seditious acts in war time must be firmly checked and stamped out whatever the oosfc may bo.