THE SYDNEY "HOLDUP"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 4

THE SYDNEY "HOLDUP"

The plight of some three- hundred New Zeaknders who are at present stranded in Sydney owing to thn shameless hold-up of the Moeraki calls \ for some remark. These, people, among them being a number of women and children, have been detained in Sydney for several weeks on account, . firstly, of the epidemic, and,' latterly, by the inability of the Union Company to dispatch a vessel owing to the extortionate demands of the firemen. The position now is that some at least of these stranded passengers have run short of_ funds, and arc, many of them, \n a very serious predicament. Sir James Allen, who has been appealed to, states that he has referred the appeal_ to the general manager of the Union Company at Dunedin, adding that the Government cannot require the shipping company to pay tEe extortionate rates demanded by the firemen. This does not help the passengers. A cable message to-day states that-several of the more fortunately placed of them have offered to pay the difference in the men's pay, and so raise this senseless blockade. There can be no question as to the responsibility for the hold up. It is clear that the firemen are to blame for the delay, and the union cannot escape its share for not exerting Its authority over them. In the special circumstances, however, the shipping company might well consider its obligation to the passengers who arc .the innocent victims, even at the expense of yielding to what are the obviously unwarranted demands of the firemen.