RED PLOT.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1925, Page 4

RED PLOT.

THE MEN BEHIND IT

The Labour correspondent of the London “ Daily -Mail,” writing on September "2nd with regard to the “ reds” attack on British shipping in various parts of the Empire gives some very illuminating information, which is as follows: The Reds had a double motive in intensifying their campaign at the ports yesterday.

At 11 o’clock this morning the Majestic is due to leave Southampton, and if the liner sails the agitators will have had their worst defeat.—[The Majestic did sail to the .second.J For a week they have been planning to hold up the .Majestic in the hope that such a success would win over the men at other ports. Aesterday false telegrams poured into Southamp-

ton from every shipping centre round the coasts informing the Majestic's crew that the strike was spreading to such dimensions that everything would he at a standstill before this morning.

The manoeuvre seems to have failed completely. Last night it was announced that the Majestic will sail to the minute. Not more than -111 members of the prospective crew of dot) had refused to sign on, and arrangements had been made for union men to take their places, while ten times as many seamen had volunteered for the berths.

The second purpose of the activity of the Communist leaders yesterday was to try to cause a clamour to he raised for the Trades Union Congress to receive a deputation ol the Reds, when it meets at Scarborough next week and

consider a demand that the whole trade union organisation he lent lor

the exploitation of tlie conspiracy. Meetings were hold in the alternoon at overv port to announce that the Amalgamated -Marine Workers’ l nion had decided to support anil extend the strike movement, and that it would compel the trade union movement to act. But the Trades Union Congress is not likely to he tempted to do so by a union the record of which is so well known. WHAT THE UNION IS. The Amalgamated Marine Worker-,’ Cnioii was formed in 1!)22 by the tnsion of the old British Seafarers’ Union and the National Union of Cooks and Stewards and the combined funds amounted to T 120,000. In three years they have dwindled to less Ilian (.'20,000, and the paying membership has become infinitesimal. Not onlv lias revenue diminished hut also capital lias been lost. Further. Tor some mouths the union lias been meeting claims in the courts involving thousands of pounds. It has had to answer writs and defend actions in Chancery, and numerous county court summonses have been issued against it.

The sole purpose of this organisation now is to deal a death-blow at, the National Sailors’ and Eirenien’s Union. So disgusted with the methods employed by their colleagues were the leaders of the former National Union of Cooks and Stewards that they have resigned and transferred to the National Sailors’ and Firemen's Union.

The Amalgamated Marine Workers

Union has seen ail opportunity in tin Communist plot to achieve ils ends, and il has deputed the work to itnational organiser. Mr Emanuel Shinwell. This son of a Jewish, elolhes denier in tlie East End ol London, whom Mr Ramsay MacDonald promoted tu In: Secretary lor .Mines in hi - Goverimteiu. ha - never had anv eonneet ion w ith the "i a. Hi- appoint mein as an organise! among them has puzzled the seamen, and will'll it was aiinoinii ed to a meeting ol sailors and liiemen al I’opiai Town Hal! -i.-i,lay that lie is likely to i iiiiii" lo London to entry on the agitiil ii m eheers greeted a shout: “ W. don't want a tailor's pressor lo meddle m our affairs." Chtel among- Mr Shiiiwell's colleagues in the plot against the Empire are the brothers Jim, and I’eier Larkin, Loth notorious revolutionaries, and Mr George Hardy, the organiser of the National Minority Movement, a Communist whose subversive activity has brought him into trouble the world over, (in their stall they have numerous represent a lives of the Unomploycd Workers Committee Movement, anot her ComiiMinist-ow ned body. Since be arrived in Loudon Jim Larkin has been under observation. Yesterday he went to Liverpool. It is this crowd which is living to 1 1 111 m* British .seamen, and which, in the sailors’ own phrase, will leave them on the heaeh. Their camp followers are a company of traitors playing for their own ends. After persuading sailors and tireinen not to sign on. men from their ranks promptly take their places In the ships. OWNERS’ .MOVE.

So lar the Brilish shipping computin', have retrained from taking proceedings against the crews who have lei 1 their vessels abroad, recognising thill Mich aclion would lie liaish witii men who have been deceived ami misled. Last night, however, the various lines sent instruction., to their agents at over-seas ports to give the crews Is hours in which (o rejoin their ships. Every .seamen who has left duty is liable to 12 weeks' imprisonment, for " combining Lo impede the navigation ol a ship," and the charge call be made abroad or when they return t-i the United Kingdom. Air Peter Larkin told a strike meeting at Poplar yesterday thal Mr Tom Mann the chairman of the National Minority Movement and an avowed Commimist. is to be asked to lead the strike stoppage and bring;, about a paralysis greater than that lie caused at I lie ports I 1 years ago.

One of the pretexts Air l.arkiu offered fur a strike was that the Lusitania uas carrying munitions when torpedoi d and that many of the crew could not get oil deck because the escapeways were held down by cases of dynamite and gelignite. This falsehood caused a number of sailors to leave the hall, obviously loiniticed at last of tlm lengths to which the agitators- are prepared to go in propaganda. ; In a •-(aK'melit issued last .night the executive li-..- Xatioiud Sailors’ and. Fi-mci,'- ioi-m revert led that tic 'trike wa- aimonneed in the I mlil-l rial Workers of t lie World journal. published m Chicago, before ii a- even heard ol in this country. Simultaneously with the circulation of the statement Tu America a notorious I.W.AV. organiser arrived in this count IV . A lew day- ago at the London docks and in several other places men seceded I rum the strike committees and j signed on in outgoing vessels. Coloured seamen were enrolled to take their places on the committees, I and three lasears were enlisted at Car-j dill'. j JIAI LAPKIN BEATEN. WHY HE LEFT IRELAND. The Dublin correspondent of the London " Daily Mail " on September Ist. wrote that the departure ot Mr Jim Larkin, the Irish revolutionary, from Ireland, lias been foreseen for some time. K7s influence has been waning gradually, and now it is almost at an end. AY hen he was deported from the t e.ited States in 1922. after having served a term of imprisonment in Sing Sing lie returned to Ireland. There he found the Transport Union, which lie had founded in the stormy days of the war, was in the hands of a group of moderate men. Ho formed

a new body known as the Irish Workers’ Union and suceedded in weaning a fairly large number of men from the Transport Union. He promptly engineered a dockers' strike, which created an impossible situation. Some of the dockers belonged to his union and some to the Transport Union. Employers were at their wits’-end, for they did not know with whom they were dealing. Strikes were virtually continuous for a year. WAR ()X LAI? KIN ISM. ' .Mr Larkin decided some weeks ago to play his trump card. The coal porters were ordered to refuse to work with the Transport Union members. The employers declared a lock-out and there was a complete coal trade stoppage for nearly six weeks. Dublin was without coal, and then employers pledged themselves to stand together and fight l.arkinism to a finish. They were joined by the Transport. Workers’ Union. Mr Larkin breathed lire and thunder and intimidation as it is known only in this country began. Men who dared tu unload coal were attacked in their homes. Coverument protection was given and the ships were discharged. Then delivery began. At first people were nervous about ordering coal, but when they saw that the employers and the workers were determined to break Mr Larkin they plucked up courage, and to-day deliveries all over Dublin are sufficient to satisly all reasonable demands. Mr Larkin is beaten, and he lias vonc to England. I here is a ‘aidespread feeling that it is a case of “ reeiiler oour mieux sauter 1 (going back to have another try).