Strike of German Waiters.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 10 November 1891, Page 3

Strike of German Waiters.

The gaiety of nations was well nigh eclipsed by an alarming strike of German waiters at the Naval Exhibition. The People says :- After a fearful crisis of about five minutes the ganger was, however, averted. The record of the fact will, nevertheless, be interesting, not to say amusing. The strike was an effort to boycott I the British press, and it did not j succeed. The executive committee had issued invitations to press representatives to meet admiral Sir William Dowell, the chairman of! the executive ' committee, -to -hear about the autumn arrangements at the exhibition, and a very handsome decorated table was laid out in the lurge terrace dining room overlooking the illuminated gardens. The flowers were marking anchors and cables on the snow-white table cloth ; the native oysters, with fine open countenance, winked on the plates ; the ice-pails cooled the atmosphere ; the guests were seated, napkin under chin or in buttonhole ; the universal jaw waggled in preliminary practice. But there were no waiters. One thereupon approached Sir William Dowell, the genial chairman, and whispered into his ear. So might have started from his chair the admiral who first heard of the mutiny at the Nore. He hastily conferred with Sir W. Houston Stewart, his vice chairman, and Sir George Chubb, chairman of the allimportant finance committee, and with grave looks those gentlemen studied the menu. Yet there were no waiters. The general body of the guests knew nothing of their peril, but the writer cf these lines, happening to sit between Sir William Dowell and Sir George Chubb, had heard the fearful news. The German waiters had struck. They refused to wait upon members of" the English press, who, they said, had attacked them. A kindly providence soon interfered, and a capital dinner was capitally served by an energetic staff of new waiters, summoned by telephone from all parts of the ground. The sequel transpired later and it showed that Mr Mackenzie Ross, the refreshment contractor, is not a Scotchman for nothing. Hearing of the incident, he dismissed and i aid off the strikers on the spot, and hud them bundled out of the grounds, bag and baggage, without loss of time, before the dessert course was handed round. Only a half-dozen h* the table knew what had happened so neatly was the whole thing managed.