The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1928. AN IMPASSE.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1928. AN IMPASSE.

! Tub Cooks’ trouble in Australia liavI mg reached in the long last a doad- ! lock, the Gordian Knot has to be cut ! now by someone, and the Oommon- | wealth authorities propose to do the ■ deed. Whether trouble will lie added I 1o trouble remains to be seen. At the \ time of writing the cooks at Brisbane i are showing a relenting disposition, and j perhaps now that the alarms and ox- \ cursionx ol lawtul authorities centroil i at Canberra are taking definite .shape, ' wisdom will assert itself ami tho ! cooks generally, it is hoped, will be disj posed to make the best ol the very s bad stew they have managed to serve i up. On the other hand it is feared I in some quarters that a big conflict I univ result when the authorities bring j pressure to man the idle snips. II this ! should happen it will lie more catasj trophic still. We shall then have a ! situation akin to that in England j when tho Government called out the | military and started the wheels ol in- : dustry going again under the protec- | lion of the guns. It does seem stuI pid at this stage in civilisation that [ the two sides representing, capital and j labour in the industrial world, should j go the length of reaching the brink of j a form of civil revolution before they ’ can lie brought to a frame of mind to settle their differences. In the pre- ; sent instance the position has arisen from a trifling dispute—the omployj nicn't of an additional cook on an in-ter-colonial steamer. When tho ship owners would not conform, to the demand of the Cooks’ Union, the cooks struck and held up the ship. In lining so the latter ignored the conditiouns of their employment under the Arbitration Award. Since then the trouble has spread. It now threatens to paralyse shipping all round Australia and iierhaps further abroad. Great loss is resulting hourly. It is at this stage that the authorities at Canberra have declared that the ships must be worked. To-day, if there is no eleventh hour settlement prompted by the contingency which has now arisen, the ships will he manned, loaded, and sail under lawful protection. Just how far this last resort to maintain civil rights will be pushed remains with the -recalcitrants. What is happening is a reflection on unionism as it so often nowadays seeks to assert itself. There appears to he no general disposition for discipline—hut there is the obvious desire for extreme action if any particular demand is not conceded. Then it is that the union seeks to force the something at the point of revolt. In doing so the general public are made to suffer. Where the parties will not conform to the civil law controlled by the Arbitration Courts for the settlement of differences such as have arisen., the ignoring of the authority is in form a revolt, and should lie suppressed promptly if law and order are to be preserved. A skilfully expressed cartoon in an Australian paper the other day showed the Arbitration Court judges in the prisoner’s lx>x, while tho bench was occupied by a galaxy of cooks. The inference was that arbitration as an effective principle was on its trial. That seems to he the growing situation to-day. Arbitration as existing in most countries must needs be placed on a firmer position—not only to dispense justice and formulate its awards—but also to see that its judgments are enforced. I; would be the undoing of any country if there was nob the machinery 7 to enforce the civil judgments of the courts. Criminals would lie at large, ownership at stake, and the public safety challenged. We should say that just now arbitration is on its trial in Australia, and it is rather remarkable that in that respect tho Labour leaders and the Labour Unions do not assist the maintenance of law and order. Questions are raised in Parliament by Labour men opposing interference to safeguard the country’s.interests. Unions are passing resolutions against tho protection of “scab” labour. Here is a lesson for New Zealand not to allow the supporters of Labour to get to great a footing in the Dominion. Farmers and others should remomlier what happened in other days when they had to load their products for export because of the extreme action of organised Labour. That disposition among the rank and file of organised political Labour is- still rampant, and looking to the experience* of Australia in this

time of serious import, New Zealand electors should take thought betimes and save themselves from a similar possible impasse in the future.