Looking Back

by Sir Seymour John Fortescue

The only other amusement, besides the evening ride, was to attend the meetings held by the strikers. Spaniards of all shades are passionately fond of oratory and of the sound of their own voices. I suppose the inherent beauty and sonority of their language fascinates them, and the speeches were endless. I, alas! have very little knowledge of Spanish, so did not understand much, but I gathered from those who knew the language that their eloquence was principally employed in condemning the Government, vituperating the employers, and, what was novel in Chile, preaching an anti-European doctrine.

However, the climax was approaching.

On the 19th, the Zenteno arrived with Don Carlos Eastman, General Renard, and a welcome reinforcement in the shape of the O’Higgins Regiment.

The Intendente duly landed, the streets being lined with troops. All the strikers congregated to witness his arrival, their total number in the small town of Iquique being estimated at anything between 12,000 and 16,000 men.

On the following day the Intendente received a deputation consisting of the committee of the strikers. He then called a meeting of the employers, and finally had a private interview with Noel Clarke, as doyen of the Foreign Consuls at Iquique.

On the morning of the 21st, a state of siege was proclaimed in the town, proclamations to that effect being posted, and notices in the local papers. One more attempt was made by the Intendente to induce the strikers to return to their work, but his note received an insolent answer couched in a sort of semiofficial language, which pointed to the fact that it was more of an attempt at a revolution, than a mere strike of workmen, that was confronting the Chilean Government. Fortunately for Chile, and for the Europeans who were in that country or had interests there, Don Carlos Eastman was a man who was not to be trifled with by an ignorant mob of strikers, headed by a band of anarchists and revolutionaries. The time for action had come, and was quickly seized. Owing to the overcrowding of the town by these thousands of strikers; (in addition to the danger of conflagration already alluded to,) there was a distinct risk of an epidemic breaking out, from the said overcrowding, and the filthy and insanitary habits of the men from the Pampas. Measures had to be taken to remove these unwelcome guests from the town, and they were taken at once.

The General in command of the troops was commanded by the Intendente to surround the strikers in the principal square, the Escuela Santa Maria, where they were holding one of their everlasting meetings, and order them to leave the town; warning them that if they had not moved off before the clock struck four, force would be used. Meanwhile, every effort was made by the officers present, from the General downwards, to persuade the strikers to retire, but all their eloquence was only met, by counter-abuse and violent and revolutionary speeches by the men’s leaders, who then retired to the building which was used as the headquarters of the committee. The General then ordered all peaceful inhabitants to withdraw. Advantage of this was taken by some of the strikers, who left the ranks of their comrades. At the last stroke of four, fire was opened on the building that sheltered the committee, and on the strikers, by a couple of machine-guns. The firing lasted about a minute, and then, without any further fuss, a long column of strikers marched out of the town to the race-course, flanked on either side by troops, and almost immediately began to entrain to go back to their work on the Nitrate Fields.

While the firing was going on we were all on the roof of the Casa Clarke, about a quarter of a mile from the Escuela Santa Maria, but as soon as it was over Morris and I went down into the street to watch the procession pass.

The Chileans are a fine fighting race, and, to use the old “ring” expression, took their “gruel” like men. I heard afterwards that they had begun to return the fire with revolvers and carbines, but machine-gun fire was too much for them, and in about a minute there were about four hundred of them down, of which some one hundred and twenty or so were dead. When they passed us in the street, though every now and then a badly wounded man would fall down in his tracks, there were no complaints or curses at the troops. They simply realised that the leaders had lost, and that they had to pay for it. As usual, not a single one of these same leaders, who were pretty well known to the authorities, were found amongst the killed or wounded, and all attempts to get hold of them failed. Somehow or another, with the aid of their sympathisers in the town, they all succeeded in getting clear away.

I do not propose to deduce any moral from this rather detailed account of a strike of a few thousand workmen in a South American Republic; but in these days, when we all live, in this country, under the perpetual threat of strikes of all sorts and descriptions, up to a General Strike, it may be of interest to any one who happens to read these pages, to learn, how officials who are not afraid to act, (though living in a thoroughly democratic country under a Republican form of Government,) can restore law and order, when they are threatened with revolution, under the guise of labour discontent.