LABOUR TROUBLES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9673, 11 December 1909, Page 5

LABOUR TROUBLES.

STRIKE IN AUSTRALIA. GOVERNMENT'S ACTION CONDEMNED. WAR AGAINST STRIKE J CONGRESS United Prtsa Assooiation—Electffd Telegraph t Copyright. Received .Oefleffiber 10, 10.15 a.m. SYDNEY, December 10. Mr Hughes and other strike leaders strongly condemn the proposed action o± the Government—to ignore the safety regulations of the Mining Act by ailowitig non-unionists to be employtd in pits. They declare it would be criminal to permit inexperienced men to enter the mines.

Mr Hughes, replying to Mr Peter Bov/ling's WaJluwd speech, said Mr Bowling had pli. ily declared war against the Strike Congress, and threatens to sweep aside all its efforts at settlement Mr Bowling is, declares Mr Hughes, aiming at a revolution— m\ appeal to force. He (Mr Hughes) was irrevocably opposed to that policy, and would not endorse it. Maybe, *the unionists'in New South Wales wovld prefer Mr Bowling's methods. If so, they were free to follow him. The democracy's only hope was in unity. He hoped Mr Bowling would see" the wisdom of leaving the settlement of the dispute in the hands of the congress. impracticable schemes were laid aside, unionism would be beaten. Mr Hughes threatens to withdraw from the struggle unless Mr Bowling. obeys the Strike Congress. With imported coal, the railways hope to coDe with the holiday traffic and keep live stock and food trains running. A movement is a foot by officials in the employ of interState steamship owners to try their hands at meuiation. The Aberciare miners' lodge resolved to ask ail unionists in the military forces to resign.