THE WATERFRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 6 February 1917, Page 4

THE WATERFRONT.

(Own Correspondent)

The trouble on the waterfront seems to have resolved itself for the moment, into an exchange of letters between the various parties concerned. The position is scarcely so hopeful as it appeared to be at the end of last week, but the men still profess a spirit of sweet, reasonableness and a desire to carry on the work of the pert to the best advantage. They have adopted, however, a rather unfortunate fashion of giving expression to their admirable sentiments, and the intervention of the Employers’, Farmers and Citizens’ Defence Committee, so far from throwing oil upon the troubled waters, has drawn from their Union a letter that is anything but conciliatory. , The general feeling here is that, while there are faults on both sides, the men have put themselves in the wrong by refusing the assistance of the. Conciliation Council in settling the dispute and that in the case of an open rupture they avoulcT obtain little sympathy even from disinterested people AA'ho stood by them in the unhappy affair of three years ago. The public Avould have no patience with a strike over a trivial difference of opinion at such a time as this.