AUSTRALIANS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1926, Page 4

AUSTRALIANS.

IN BRITAIN’S GREAT STRIKE. (.By Iv.B. in the Sydney “ Herald.”) There must he centres all over England where Australia is well in evidence. At any rate, the tendency to get together, which loneliness abroad makes stronger, counts for a good deal ; and in London especially Australians rally. One or two centres in the great city I am learning to know better with each mail, and the last budget of letters has been unusually interesting. .Most of them come from a suburb of London where mv Australianhorn relatives and Londoners with their Australian relatives, make a Imp])}' coterie, and where the life of London is well rellceled week by week. The general strike lias suddenly emphasised the fact, however, that hoys and girls as one saw them less than two or three years ago have grown up. Cousins who were at one of our Great Public .schools in Sydney, and were treated as necessary nuisances, have become young men, for the elder of the pair is reported in our last letter as bursting into the room full of excitement and police-eonstnble-enthus-iasm with a badge on his arm and a baton in his ilia nil. His first words naturally were to call upon everybody to “ behave or he arrested,” or words td that effort.

This particular letter conies from an Australian girl, who is secretary to the director of a large Sydney business with an.office in London. She lias been going into the City day by day, and actually has watched the concentration and distribution of soldiers and armoured ears on the Honourable Artillery Grounds under under hoi; windows.

She writes:—“Business in the city is pretty well at a standstill; 1 mean particularly for London trade. My chief is able to go ahead with his shipping—that is. from the Continent— French goods being forwarded to Marseilles to catch the steamer instead of being sent hero first, as usual. All that was sen), over a fortnight ago and booked for the Naldera still reclines on the wharf! And it remains to be seen when they will get away.” It is interesting to find that tlie captain of the Naldera did get away with a. few hundred tons of cargo, taking the steamer himself out of deck, and beginning bis voyage to Australia with the general strike in full swing.

SPECIAL SERVICE. The letter continues:—“'Hie call for special constables lias been magnificently responded to—Frank joined up on Friday, and went on bis first duty at 3.30 a,m. on Saturday. He with several others (all young men like himself) were marched off to keep guard over a power station some" little distance away from ns. He had to report again on Saturday- night to get instructions—and was then told he would not be wanted until Sunday night at 6 o’clock. He was then given a certain beat up Muswcll Hill way, to do patrol work—and this, he tells us. he is required to do every night this week. It was really quite funny on Friday night when lie went up to volunteer at tlie police station—lie was told to go along as 8.15, which he did. Friends happened to be with us

hearing the news by wireless, when suddenly the cloor burst open and Frank, with beaming face, bounded in, brandishing his truncheon and threatening to arrest us all iii “ The King’s name! ” They had taken him *on straight away, and provided him with his baton and blue baud for his arm. It made his mother feel rather strange at the thought of her boy being old enough and able to offer his services to the country—but at the same time, very proud, too 1 And the boy himself is just as pleased as Punch to feel ho is able to do something.

‘‘Our office, you, know, overlooks tlie Honourable Artillery 0 round, and tilings have been very active indeed—it lias looked more like war-time than anything else, especially when we saw three or four armoured ears leave the grounds on Friday. This made us realise very forcibly that tie Government were leaving nothing to chance. Wc have since heard that these armoured cars were wanted to act as a convoy for certain lorries of foodstuff's from the docks. So far it lias been marvellous the way foodstuffs have got through : but this lias not been due to the lack of trying to upset things, on the part of the strikers! As far as wo know, nothing in the looil line has been at all short—certainly not in oui; direction, as wc have been able to get everything we have asked lor —which I think, after a whole week of this dreadful struggle, is perfectly wonderful.

“Wc had the pleasure of hearing the Prime .Minister oil the wireless on Saturday night, and he spoke splendidly. The trains are hoginning to run well—every day seeing the service better and lietetr. -My chief has been abl to help quite a lot of people in and out of the City each flay. Wc always have eight aboard—three jammed into the back seat and three on the dickies. We iioiv have our regular ones, who have been told to wait for tlie lift , but at first wc used to nut up a notice ‘ Moorgate ’ in front ol tlie car, and gladly picked up anyone who hailed us. Then we did the same coming homo with the home sign. But, oh, liow hard it has been for those poor souls who have not been able to get lifts from anyone, and have had to stump it right" into their work. Personally, I do not know how they have done it, but from tlie look on tlieir faces they have faced it most bravely. A neighbour lias been a regular passenger in our car, also three from Frank’s office,' as well as himself.” NURSING WORRY.

The next letter is 1 perhaps just as interesting, because written by another Australian-born woman, but of much longer residence in England. C. nricuslv, too, she was a Sistei* at Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, like a previous correspondent, mentioned in a recent Saturday article, who is in Europe on holiday, and is a bird of passage. This later correspondent is a blood relation, which makes her letters more appealing. She received the Royal Red Cross for her services during the war, and is a woman ol strong personality. Since tlie war she has been running a convalescent home on the Kentish coast, and her comment is full of the tension of one under fire. The letter lias been written day by day beginning with May 4. She writes: “ '[ am going to begin a letter to you during this epoch-making moment. I sat up each night till 12, and 1 o’clock waiting for any news —during the sittings lor negotiation—to come through the wireless. All day yesterday camo trunk calls from various people, recalling their relatives. I began by sending off' two nurses and three children en foil to for Lincolnshire. During the day I went on as usual, but at night was left with a desolated overwhelming feeling of homesickness, and the utter futility of everything. In the evening, lying in bed, lulled and soothed after a hot bath, 1 listened in to some heavenly music, and wondered if any horrors could possibly be happening. 1 alter came announcements at 15 minutes intervals, with pauses of ja •/:/. band in between from the Savoy. It jarred and jangled, and the academy picture “ Breakdown ” —tlie nigger playing on a saxophone, sitting oil a fallen broken statue, and the' nude while woman dancing to bis music—persistently kept passing before my mental vision. !t bad appeared, reproduced. in one of the pictorial papers, and the whole thing dovetailed in together.'* and gave one plenty of food for thought. At 12 o’clock the inevitable general strike was ail accepted certniiitv.”

.May (i.—“ Our letters came punctually at breakfast-time. Last September (1025) 1 went lor a motor trip to Rye, and on tlie way sat beside a London surgeon—an easy-going, contented. good-natured person—who began to spealc of what was going to happen this May, and of all it might lead to! I remember the hair-lifting feeling I had at the time; and when the announcement of the general strike was given last Sunday night - ! felt that this nresenl statement by an unknown person was iust a continuation of our conversation. My lmir seemed to rise in the same way; and f wondered whether—after all this prolonged coldblooded anticipation—there could bo any negotiation that would lead to an amicable solution? Or is there, ns a year ago that easy-going London surgeon suggested, a strong Communistic force behind this upheaval? “ I have had interesting talks with various of my tradesmen since. My electrician told me long ago—a year nr two back—that tlie master workers in this part of Kent got together and decided to employ no union men. So, be says, there are very lew here affected by the general strike.” Sunday, May !). —“ ft seems a week since I listened in for news of the negotiations! The wireless has been the greatest boon all the week, nevertheless, and things generally seem to be getting well iii band. I am rather

disgusted with the tone of some of our ecclesiastics’ appeals—weak rather than strong and straight. I was much more impressed with the strong words of the Roman Catholic Cardinal at the Westminster Cathedral to-day. The others do not compare favourably with liis vigorous pronouncement." So the letter ended. It has been written in sentences from day to day, as the pen “was taken up and put down in the "midst of a busy life. The idea was to give an impression from the head of a large convalescent home of what tlie general strike- meant at the moment, and much more can he gathered from the writing itself than can be conveyed bv mere quotations.