UNREST IN AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1922, Page 5

UNREST IN AUSTRALIA.

DANGER FROM EXTREMISTS. LOWER wages opposed. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received May 15, 7.15 p.m. Sydney, May 15. Mr. Ley (Minister for Justice), dealing with the growth of communism in the Labor movement, instanced several recent attempts to promote sectional strikes with a view to involving other unions. Only when they found the weight of public opinion against them were the attempts abandoned, but they are still being engineered in other directions. He stressed the serious possibilities of widespread trouble, and urged the workers to assert themselves and. not allow themselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter by a group of imported extremists, who could not exist except by causing strife and disunion. . On the other, hand the Government is being criticised both by the leaders outside its own party and by outsiders for its delay in dealing with the increasing unemployed ' difficulty. The new basic wage adds complications, as if the Government gazettes it it will mean that the salaries of public servants will be reduced 7s weekly, Lite Government’s opponents, particularly laborites, are utilising these factors to support the contention that the Government policy aims at a general reduction of wages and the lengthening

of fihe hours of labor. This is strenuously refuted by members of Cabinet, who' point out that the Government has no tiling whatever to do with the reduction of wages, which, is the function of -the Courts. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.