SOUTH AFRICAN LABOUR TROUBLE

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 634, 14 January 1914, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN LABOUR TROUBLE

RAILWAYMEN ON STRIKE. LEADERS UNDER ARREST. DYNAMITE OUTRAGES. Johannesburg, Monday. All the trains on the Rand have ceased running with the exception of tne mail trains. The drivers, shunters, and guards have atruck work in the Transvaal, and the railways are disorganised. The Orange Free State lines are in mu"h the same condition. The railways are, however, working in Natal and Cape Colony as usual. A dynamite explosion took place on Friday on the railway between Johannesburg and Cleveland. There are only ten days' provisions at Johannesburg. The Government is confident of its ability to keep the main lines open. A ganger discovered three sticks of dynamite and detonators on the line just before the arrival of a train from Zeerust. The situation at Bloemfontain is Very serious. The men in all the railway workshops have come out, and armed police and a contingent of the Defence Force are guarding the stations. The Witband collieries have closed owing to the lack of trucks. The mines would practically have ceased to-day whatever the decision of the federation. LEADERS ARRESTED. Mr Connelly, the president of the railwaymen's executive, Mr Carson. secretary, and Mr Buckley, one of the members of the union, have been im prisoned and a quantity of their papers seized. The arrests have caused a sensation. Messrs Glendon, Livingstone, Munroe and pther Labour orators were arrested on Friday. Mr Wade, one of the men's leaders has been imprisoned for 21 days under th« peace preservation ordinance. Messrs Waterston and Poutsma, two of the leading strikers, have also been arrested for seditious utterances, and also Mr Field, assistant secretary of the Railwaymen's Society. The Trades Federation threatens a general strike unless all are released. The crowd at a strike meeting prevented the police from arresting Bain, the secretary of the Trades Federation. Bain has since remained at the Trades Hall protected by a bodyguard. SEDITIOUS. Mr George Mason, a member of the Trades Federation, addressing the strikers at Johannesburg, said the Federation did not intend to call out the minerß. The latter were dying to avenge the bloodshed of July but their revenge would come later. He wanted his hearers to be like himself, and curse the King, the flag, and the country. They were as good a a the King.

A voice: Yes, and! better. Mr Mason declared that the workers were not afraid of deportation. The workers had brains, were in the majority, and could work everything without the capitalistic class. A revolution by the workers, he declared, waa inevitable. Another speaker maintained that they must realise in this industrial warfare that they were fighting for their bread and butter and the lives of the citizens. FUNDS LOW. The railwaymen are now advancing other demands besides those of rein statement of those dismissed under the retrenchment scheme, viz., the abolition of piecework, an eight-hour day.jand a standard wage. The Federation's funds are insufficient to carry out a general strike successfully. PROTECTIVE MEASURES. A proclamation has been issued calling out the entire citizen army of Transvaal on the ground that serious disturbances are anticipated. The troops are now guarding the coal stores. All is quiet on the gold mines. Two mounted Union regiments from Potchfstr )om and two infantry regiments have begun to march on the Rand. The drivers of the trains from Potchefstroom have refused to convey any police to tho Rand. Police from Natal are now entraining for the Transvaal. Five hundrei men of the Mounted Rifles are now quartered in the Pretoria barracks. The members of the defence forces will be mainly employed in protecting the railways. MARTIAL LAW. Goal and foodstuffs are being sent to the Rand, and the authorities are commandeering all the motor-ears, mules ind wagons for transport service. The Cape mail train was nearly blown up on Friday on the Witswatersrand. The front heels of the pilot engine were blown off and the permanent way was damaged. Fortunately nobody was injured. Martial law has 1 been proclaimed. Only one-fifth of the Durban employees have responded to the call to strike, while the others have decided to abide by the result of a ballot. SOMETHING MORE THAN STRIKE FEARED. Capetown, Monday. The Government's energetic action is interpreted as meaning that the authorities are convinced they are faced with something more than a common strike. The defence force is guarding the docks. . OUTRAGED THE CONSTITUTION. Johannesburg, Monday. The Labour party, in a manifesto juat issuer!, say that by imprisoning the leadeva the Government has outraged the Constitution. The manifesto urges the reconstruction of the Railway Boaifd so as to include elected representatives from the organised railway workers.