AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1927, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) PREMIER’S ULTIMATUM. BRISBANE, Aug. 30. Tho Government has taken a firm stand against the sympathetic railway strikers in the canefields area. Mr McCormack, the Premier, has issued an ultimatum. In this he said that he would not stand a repetition of the Australian Railways Union’s 1921 attempt to usurp control of tho railway service of the State, and that the Government have decided to bring the issue to a decision. The State Parliament to-day adjourned, on the motion of tho Premier, supported by the Leader of tho Opposition, in view of tbe serious industrial crisis threatening tlie State.

Following on the issue of the Premier’s ultimatum, there were 120 reenlcitrant railwaymen dismissed, and further dismissals are threatened. The Premier stated that he will be tbe supreme power as far as the essential services of the State are concerned. MELBOURNE, Aug. 30. Mr Keane, the General Secretary of the Australian Rail way.s’T'nion, said that Premier McCormack’s action was most brutal and stupid, and that the trouble would spread right throughout the branches of the Union in ail the States. MAHENO SAILS. SYDNEY, Aug. 30. A squad of police marched to the wharf to-day. where the Maheno was moored, to execute the warrants against the forty-nine strikers. The latter, at a hurriedly convened meeting, decided to return to work, and so the vessel sailed at six in the evening. The police state the warrants will now be withdrawn.