Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 109
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[Page 109]
(5.)
but I doubt it. It has already been going on for four weeks, & I think both sides are going for a fight to a finish. You know how we have suffered discomfort in other strikes and at the end of them the strikers have always won. This time things are different, & we are prepared to put up with any amount of inconvenience in the belief that we have got a Government at last which will see the thing through.
There have been many funny things. Hughes (whom you & I so much admire!) has been persuaded by our Government to leave us alone, & not to interfere. This has not prevented him from applying in Melbourne for the cancellation of the registration of the wharf labourers' union, because Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, & Perth are all in trouble & the strikes have spread there. Judge Higgins has collided with Hughes, & they have been exchanging compliments which have been duly published in the Press. To us, who are not Labourites, all this is food for the Gods! The Wharf Labourers formerly had Hughes as their President! Again the Premier of Queensland, Ryan, has been trying his Labour tricks on Fuller here, & Fuller has expressed his regret publicly that Ryan is not prepared to support him in maintaining constitutional government. Your friend Strickland would hardly know the place which he left only a few months ago. For better or worse we are going to see this business through. It will result either in smashing the National Party to smithereens at the next election, or in smashing the