*THE
WORKER*
Brisbane
September 8, 1894
THE
EDITORIAL MILL.
Our
Motto: “Socialism in our time”
Curious
feelings stir one's breast as he reads the Colonial Secretary's
Coercion Manual. It is a strange and yet to Queenslanders a somewhat
familiar document. Our citizens have for some years been so dragooned
and coerced that they only realise the brutal nature of Mr.Tozer's
“Instructions to the Justices of the Peace and Police” when it is
pointed out by a “capitalistic” newspaper publishes in a land not
yet so police ridden as this is. Then pain, surprise, indignation,
anger, hopelessness and despair disturb in quick succession the minds
of those who would see Peace reign throughout the land and Justice
done to all. Pain and anger that a man possessed of such blood
thirsty instincts should by a plausible tongue have attained the
position which enables him to put forth such a revolting emanation.
Hopelessness and despair in contemplation of the apparent difficulty
of unseating him.
*
* *
And
yet he must be unseated if Queensland is to preserve herself from
insurrection. Any man who would issue such order as he has issued,
who places it in the power of a perhaps ignorant, uneducated, and
excitable policeman to arrest WITHOUT WARRANT unionists attending
roll-calls should the policeman THINK a breach of the peace likely to
take place, to shoot and kill any unionist who resists such arrest
(see page 2 paragraph 3) is not only better out of Parliament, but
should himself be placed under restraint.
*
* *
Not
only in a “likely” case of intimidation is a policeman entitled
to arrest or kill, but in a dozen similar situations are white
citizens to be “dropped” as the squatters dropped the black
natives a few years ago. If three or more persons (page 2 paragraph
5) assemble of their own authority, attend a roll-call, and IN THE
OPINION OF THE POLICE present are about to cause a tumult, the police
may call upon them to surrender, and if they do not immediately
surrender, the police are ordered to shoot with intent to kill. If
any Justice of the Peace – maybe a squatter, for most squatters in
the bush are J.sP. - finds 12 or more unionists assembled together
(page 3 paragraph 1) and acting IN HIS OPINION in a riotous or
tumultuous manner he may read the Riot Act as follows:
Our
Sovereign lady the Queen chargeth and commandeth all persons being
assembled immediately to disperse themselves and peaceably to depart
to their habitations or to their lawful businesses, upon the pains
contained in the Act made in the first year of King George for
preventing tumults and riotous assemblies.
God
Save the Queen!
And
if the (in his opinion) tumult does not cease, the Justice squatter
may call upon the police to arrest the ringleaders, and to shoot to
kill in case of resistance.
*
* *
Then
again (this time under an old Act, 2 * Edward III., c. 3, which does
not appear in the index of English statutes, AS IT HAS BEEN REPEALED,
but which has been unearthed to meet the circumstances of the
shearers' strike), if any unionist (page 3, par. 7) should go or ride
armed by night or by day in fairs, markets, or in the presence of the
justices (squatters) or other ministers, or in any part elsewhere,
said unionists may be called upon “to forfeit their armour to the
King and their bodies to the King's pleasure” (“the King's
pleasure” being an absurd legal anachronism in view of the more
modern Habeas Corpus Act); and if any unionist or unionists resist
arrest under this moth-eaten statute, he or they may be shot dead by
the policemen present.
(*
The arms used in the reign of Edward III, were the club, mace, battle
axe, pike, spear, javelin, sword, and dagger, bows and arrows, and a
crude species of cannon. Rifles or revolvers were not then made.)
(The wearing of arms – see page 4, par. 3 – in
certain cases, such as that of squatters or blacklegs, is not a
violation of the Act!) In all the above offences, and a great many
more coming under the head of Felony (which embraces all crimes),
constables endeavouring to effect arrest will if death ensues in the
struggle be held harmless (page 4, par. 7). the police may arrest
WITHOUT WARRANT ON SUSPICION (page 5, par.7) any man whom they
suspect has committed or is about to commit crime, and if said man
resist arrest the police are ordered to shoot to kill. “Firing must
be effective.”
* * *
Special constables, too – who in some cases are
untrained, ignorant, and the dregs of humanity – have all the
powers of ordinary constables (page 5, par. 7). And towards the end
of the Manual, for fear it should be over looked, reiterated
instruction is given that firing should be effective and AT THE
LEADERS. Firing over the heads of mobs or crowds engaged in an
illegal pursuit must not be allowed, as a harmless fire, instead of
intimidating, will give confidence to the daring and the guilty(page
6, par. 2).
* * *
Well may the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH of Thursday, August
30, refer to the Manual in the following strongly worded protest:
“This
ghastly official announcement . . . . Not even in the most
autocratically governed country in Europe has a more cold – blooded
incitement to take human life been issued with official sanction.
It seems incredible that a Minister in an English –
speaking country could issue such instructions to the police. As far
as we are aware the almost universal rule is to urge the police to
abstain, except under absolute necessity, from the use of firearms
against mobs, and even when they are compelled to use them it should
be for the purpose of intimidating, not killing, those that
they may have to fire upon. An immense out burst of oratory took
place in Victoria during the great maritime strike because Colonel
Price counselled the military when they had to deal with riotous mobs
to fire low. This instruction, which caused so much indignation was
really a humane one, its purpose being to inflict as little injury as
possible upon the mobs when fired upon. Bullets fired at the feet of
a mob, or at the ground in front of a mob, would obviously be much
less disastrous in effect than if fired right into the mob. In the
former case, injury might be inflicted; in the latter, the killing of
somebody would be certain. But this Queensland instruction makes
no pretence at humanity. It instructs the police to mark down the
leaders, and fire at them if possible with effect. The solution of
the Capital and Labour problem is very far off when it is possible .
. . . for a Queensland Minister to issue such instructions as
those contained in this Queensland Manual.”
* * *
Any person with a spark of manhood who knows the
circumstances that led up to the present strike, who is aware that
for the past seven months the unions have had a standing appeal to
the pastorlists to settle the dispute by conference, must take sides
with the bushmen against the Colonial Secretary and the squatters. If
the men quarrel, and one is injured was the first to assault his
opponent, every disinterested person is prepared to admit, while
regretting the occurrence, that he brought his trouble on himself.
This is exactly what has occurred in the present industrial dispute.
The unionists sent peace-offering after peace-offering to the
squatters to no purpose. Away in April last the Brisbane COURIER, NOW
SO BITTER AGAINST THE BUSHMEN, said in reference to the unions'
request to meet in conference;
“The doubtful points in the situation is the apparent
indisposition of the squatters to entertain a proposal for a
conference. A request for one was made so long ago as January, but it
cannot be considered by the Queens' and Pastorlists' Council in June
and even then it must be submitted to the Federal Council for
decision. This delay does not look well. It may be unavoidable delay,
but it has the aspect of intention. There is a how not to do it look
about the thing. If conference are not to be granted, why not say so
straight-out.?”
* * *
The squatters have since said”straight-out” that
they will not grant a conference. What, then, are the bushmen to do?
Cringe and crawl to work, or stand up like the men they are, and
assert their rights to live? This the bushmen have done, and because
so far the squatters have failed, with all the Government assistance
in the shape of police organisers and police spies to break down the
unity of the workmen, and because they cannot get enough greasy,
malodorous blacklegs to rob the strikers of the work and the bread
which for months they have waited for, this stupid and pig-headed
elique, misnamed a Government, issues a cold-blooded indictment to
shoot, in order that the unionists may be terrified into
accepting the squatters' terms.
* * *
What is the country coming to? is Queensland, the first
to spring to the assistance of starving London dockers, going to
forsake her own? Is Justice dead and Liberty non-existent? The press
gagged and the pulpit silent? Are the men in the cities so cast down
that they dare not raise their voices in protest against the gross
infringement of the rights of nineteenth century white men? If so,
let the spirits of our fore fathers, who forced Magna Charta from
King John, at Runnymede, who brought the tyrant King Charles I. To
the block, mourn the cowardice of their offspring who shiver on the
steps of what should be their own, while politicians issue from
luxurious chambers a tyrannous edict which should send the blood
tingling through every vein and artery of all men, and which should
make men set their teeth with a firm resolve to mend or end a
condition of things so corrupt and perfidious.
W.
G. H.
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