HOSTILITY TO POLICE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1924, Page 3

HOSTILITY TO POLICE

AFTERMATH OF .MUTINY. SYDNEY, May 8. The strike of tramway employees in Melbourne, which Ims paralysed a large portion of the city’s tramway sy.-tein, is the direct outcome of the discontent anwng-t all Melbourne unionists as a result of the utter defeat of tile participants in tin- recent strike, or mutiny as tin- authorities prefer to call it. The Government stood firmly to its determination not to re-engage the men

who hod refused duty, and months of agitation, pleading, and threatening found them unuulveil from their determination to make Lhe all'air a grim warning that constitutional methods and no others must be employed by such a body a.s the police force. Naturally the chief sufferers from the chagrin of these iminnist.s who -ym-|-atise with the police who tlnis lost their positions were men who had enlisted for special duty during the mutiny. The special force employed during the crisis far nuliiiimhoicd that which would he required for the permanent recnlistruetion of the . force, consequently ■ many men who served were hound Infer to seek other employment. It so hanpen.s that the man over whom the present trouble has arisen did not actually serve, hot merely ealt.-ted and was rejected on physical grounds. He had succeeded in obtaining promise of employment in tla- tramways, and a grioman. whose duty it was to instruct him ascertained the fact of his enlistment, ami obstinately refused to instruct him. This the authorities cimld not countenance, and they dismissed the gripinau. Immediately the whole of the employees on a large set lion of the system struck. The strike has now lasted some days, .and ;■ t- the time of writing there is absolutely no sign of settlement. there being all the elements of a prolonged struggle in which all the bitterness engendered by tin- result el the police mutiny will find exnres.-ion. It is consider"'! that tlii- action of the men. in bnouing the disgraceful ic-illl-- of the police mutiny, when .Melbourne was ridden v.itli lawlessness ami violence. •so vivihly before the public again tit, a

time when an early election i. ainm-t inevitable owing t i the division; be-

tween the Country Rnriv and tlie Nationalists in the Slate, will greatly mar ihe chances of Victorian Labour from repeating the successes of the parly in South Australia and West Australia.

Tlh- feelin;j against, ilie police which the strike ha- revived has found expression in several ugly scenes, individuals and groups of policemen being taunted and even molested by crowds ol idle men. On one occasion a small body of policemen, enormously nlllnumbered were chased, the pursuers only desisting when one of the policemen turned and lireil a blank diot with his revolver.