THE WHARF CRISIS OF 1919
to allow these men to handle any cargo on the wharf; and, further, expresses the opinion that no permanent settlement of the present trouble can be arrived at so long as the National volunteers are permitted to work on the water front."
EMPLOYERS INDIFFERENT.
Earlier in the day a conference had been held at the Premier’s office between representatives of the shipping companies and the lumpers, but whilst the lumpers endeavored to find a solution of the position, the employers only repeated their claim that they were helpless in the matter unless directed by the Shipping Controller. Of what transpired at that conference, Mr. McCallum has said:—
- "The conference proved absolutely abortive, and the employers remained callous and indifferent to the highest degree. They simply brushed aside our case and made no effort to offer a counter suggestion. It was apparent that they had a fixed determination to starve the men and women of Fremantle into submission.... Knowing the feeling of the men and women immediately concerned as I do, I view the immediate Outlook with a great deal of concern. For the past 18 months they have been living on the starvation line. Hundreds of them have not earned sufficient to supply their families with the bare necessities of life. Their position is becoming desperate.... The position that has existed on the wharves for the last 18 months cannot continue any longer. Whilst there is the picture of poverty, hunger and want on the one hand, the shipping companies sit back callous and indifferent."
And here Mr. McCallum made the important disclosure that it had come out in the discussion at the conference that the agreement which the "blacklegs" had signed when they were engaged for work on the wharves stipulated that their employment was only to exist until the lumpers returned to work. Although this statement was strenuously denied at the time by the employers, it was fully confirmed on August 22 — over three months later — when Mr. Colebatch, in the course of a speech in the Legislative Council in reference to the crisis, said that the document for enrolment read:— "National Volunteer Service: We, the undersigned, do hereby offer our services to the Government of Western Australia, and we agree to do to the best of our ability any labor we may be called upon to perform until a suitable settlement has been made with the industrial workers now out on strike." The Premier further
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