Refusal to Load Scrap Iron

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 5, 29 September 1937, Page 5

Refusal to Load Scrap Iron

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shipment to japan Move Growing in Waterside Circles NATIONAL ACTION?

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WELLINGTON, This Day. The National Executive of the Federation of Labour met at Wellington yesterday tb cottSider, amOttg other questiOns, tBquests frOiit Auckland aud elsewhere to placc a boycott on Japanese goods and shipping. It was stated that nb d'e'cision was reacli'ed, and that tke dis'cuSsion would b'd continued bn Th'ttfsday aiid pdssibly Friday. ' We have had a liUmber of telfegfains and messttges frotti other centrfes urging us to consider the queSlion on a national scale, but tO-day^s mfeetihg did liot reach aUy deiitiite decision," shid aii ofiicial of th'e fedferatibn. "The questidn wiil be brought Up agaitt Ott Thursday or Friday. Itt the rrieantime, no statettient can bo made.' ' When the Japatiese motbr liner Milbourne Maru was at Wellington, last week, a UUMber of waterside wofkers tefused to handle strap steel consigiied to Jap&ti. It Was poiuted out that there was no restrictioii On the expOrt of such motai to Japau. Severttl of the mOn still pdrsisted in thbir refusal to handle tlie c'argo and, it is Stated, wero discharged. jt is understood that th'e watersidO workers theh indicated that there would be a general refusal in futiire to handle scrap metals booked for cxpoit to japan. Inquiry of a representative of ernployers of waterside labour did hot confirm the reporbs of refusal by the Workers to handle scrap metal for Japan by the Melbourne Maru or of dismissals of men. The executive of the Watersiders' IJnion met and told the men to carry on with the work subject to a decision from. the national executive of "tlie Watersiders ' Federatiou. The national executive of the Federati,on of Labour has now taken the matter upt however, and presumably whatever decision is reached by this body will be carried out by all constituent unions. in sympathy with their fellow workers at Auckland and Dunedin, who refused to load scrap irdn on Japanese ships, Lyttelton watersiders this morning decided not to load on the Melbourne Maru any material that could be uoed itt the manufactufe of war material. There were 200 tons of Japattese cargo to be uhloaded and 40 tons of scrap iron to be loaded, but the men decicLed not to etart ttntil they feceived a reply from the ttational union headqttarters. A's a result, no work Was done on the vessel. The attitude of Dunedin watersiders in their }hfeat not to ttnload Japahese goodS Was cfiticised by an importer, whb said it Was the Domittion importer who would be hit, not the Japanese merchant. Business was done with Japatt on letter of credit, he said, and in the Oveht of gobds not being discharged in NeW Zealand the loss would be borne by the importerj whose money was aliready paid and whose goods would never reach hira. Japanese liability ceased with the shipmeut: