THE RAND REVOLT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 October 1922, Page 5

THE RAND REVOLT.

JUDICIAL COMMISSION’S REPORT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Capetown, October 22. The report of the Judicial Commission appointed to inquire into the late revolutionary outbreak on the Rand finds that the declaration of martial law was justified and that the measures taken to suppress the outbreak were not greater than the occasion demanded. Dealing with the causes of the outbreak, the report declares that the ballot papers were deliberately framed with a view to securing the calling out of the workers. The development of the subsequent violence was largely due to the formation of strikers’ commandos, which were utilised to further the aims of the Communists.

The report attaches much importance to the activities ’of the Communist Party in South Africa, and traces cooperation with the Third Internationale at Moscow, in efforts to stir up the natives to organise against capitalism. The strikers anticipated receiving armed support from the country districts and the Free State.

The report condemns the action of certain Nationalist members in making political capital out -of the desire of the Nationalist element among the strikers to secure a republic and the weakness of the Labour Federation in permiting an industrial dispute to be converted into a political movement. The report finds that the conduct of the natives generally was exemplary. They gave no provocation for the assaults committed upon them.