BRITAIN IN WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2846, 10 August 1916, Page 3

BRITAIN IN WAR TIME

—? AN FX AMPLE TO AUSTRALIAN TRADE UNIONS. The President of tho New Soull( Wales Legislative Council (Mr. E. Flowers), who returned to.Sydney last-, week by the Niagara, after a trip through friendly Europe, America, and Canada, had an interesting statement concerning the attitude of the trade unions in Great Britain towards tho war—an attitude in striking contrast to that presented by some unionists in Australia. He said, "There is, almost 1111 entire absence of party political feeling; every section of the community is united in the effort to crush the common foe. A remarkable illustration of this fact is the readiness of the aggressive leaders of the unions to agree to jw.v step, however antagonistic' to their individual interests, which will tend to assist in tho prosecution of the war. They listened to reason witli icgard to the number of exempted trades; they agreed to holidays being foregone; they consented to the elimination of the lines of demarcation of trades, and, generally, they relinquished, without a murmur, privileges which have taken many years of hard work to secure. They allowed unskilled labourers to engage in the skilled occupations, especially in the manufacture of munitions."