COOK PEEVED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 719, 19 July 1929, Page 9

COOK PEEVED

Not Allowed to Eat in Shirt Sleeves A HUNGER STRIKER NOW (Australian . a«i l X.Z. Press Association) Reed. 9 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. Sitting in his shirt-sleeves in his office at Russell Square after the lunch hour, Mr. A. J. Cook, the British miners’ secretary, told the world why he had gone without lunch. It being a hot day, he left his jacket in his office, and walked in his shirt-sleeves to a Southampton restaurant. A waitress took his order, namely a cup of tea, eggs and potatoes. Presently up came the manageress, saying he could not be served in his shirt-sleeves. He said: “That is very strange. Ladies are allowed to eat with bare arms.” The manageress replied:—“My instructions are not to serve a man in his shirt-sleeves.” He said: —“If I can’t have lunch in my shirt-sleeves, I shan’t have any at all.” “Accordingly,” said Mr. Cook, “I got. up and walked out.” He considers it silly and absurd that in this hot weather a man cannot sit in a restaurant in his shirt-sleeves. He had eaten thus in a big hotel on the Continent, and also at Liverpool and Glasgow. “One night we dined with the Mayor of Blackpool in our shirt-sleeves.” He is dispensing with lunch because he is so disgusted.