COLLAPSED

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 31, 31 October 1919, Page 6

COLLAPSED

The attempt of the waterside workers to bjudgeon the community into submission to the demands of the coal miners by assisting to cut ■off urgently-needed coal supplies collapsed yesterday. It, was a senseless bluff-and an expensive one, Two colliers laden with coal bave been held up here idle for three days, needlessly. This at a time when shipping, is in short supply and every steamer should be utilised to the utmost of its capacity; when delay in the handling of cargoes means not only loss to the shipowners but increased cost to the gen eral public. Though the attempted intimidation by the waterside workers failed as signally as it deserved to do, the public should not be lulled infcoany false sense of security. The spirit behind the extremists who influence the actions of these men was well exemplified in the impudent attempt of the member for Wellington Central in the House of Representatives yesterday to cover up tho discomfiture of the waterside workers by a pretence that their employers had offended by declining to allow the men who refused to unload the colliers to work on other vessels in port. It is surprising that the Prime Minister did not deal with this silly bluff in a more emphatic manner than be did. Mr. Massey might also with advantage have expressed himself more forcibly regarding the same member's comments on the position in the coal mining dispute. If the miners have come to a reasonable way of thinking, as alleged by the member for Wellington Central, they are still a long way off a reasonable way of acting. It is by their actions and not by the professions of their apologists that the miners and those associated with them will be judged by the public.