THE STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1175, 22 November 1913, Page 2

THE STRIKE.

MR ROBERTSON APOLOGISES TO COL. HEARD.

In the House of Representatives on Thursday, Mr J. Robertson, M.P., withdrew a statement which he made in the House some time ago to the effect that he had heard Colonel Heard address an order to a group of special constables on the Wellington wharf, Mr Robertson explained that he had been mistaken as to the identity of the officer in question, who was not Colonel Heard, but another officer of equal rank. He wished to make an apology to Colonel Heard for having used his name in the matter. He had not done so from any desire to misrepresent Colonel Heard. The statement he had made was correct save for the fact that Colonel Heard was not the officer in question.

NOT THE “ CAPITALISTIC PRESS !”

WATERSIDE WORKERS’ GAZETTE ON SYNDICALISM

After the failure of the generalstrike plot at Brisbane, the Waterside Workers’ Gazette, official organ of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, published at Brisbane, re narked : —“The strikers’ leaders and spokesmen, by their errors, excesses, recklessness, and ambition, are bringing dishonour to the party, and compromising the cause by causing a disaster to unionism in Brisbane. Their excess of fanaticism was not even excusable, as the Court granted the tram men the laudable object for which they asked. They swept away the constitutional methods of obtaining their demands, and, as the result of their methods, they lost prestige, lost the strike, and caused endless pain and suffering. Their very first step was to cut off all food supplies, and, to prove the fallacy of the argument of the leaders, the very next day, when the pinch of hunger was felt, they themselves immediately withdrew their mighty ordinance in this regard, proving, bej ond the shadow of a doubt, that the worker cannot live without food, even if he can live without money. The Brisbane strike ended, like all other strikes, in disaster. While constitutional methods gave more thr>n brute force could effect, mob rule, or martial law enunciated by strike committees, cannot do any good.’’