Railway Strike.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 October 1919, Page 5

Railway Strike.

'l‘ >LINES RE-OPENED. mate’ MILLION IDLE IN WALES. 1;’ The strike has -adversely affected the f Tiling o'}; the Stock Exehange. _,j "3 37. _trains are running on the Sputfilafiern line, thirty ‘trunk trains‘ ’__on .the South-Western, 250 on_ the Great Western. and considerably ‘few_3 gCommunication has been reestablished. between London and Birmingham, Ca.rlisle,'- Liverpool, and Newcastle. firong military guards have been V placed on the North British C'ompany’s long distance trains, which are being i run mainly by engineering students. -"The strike has rendered idle at least four hundred thousand miners and V 'tWenty—six‘ thousand tin ‘plate, workers T in South Wales, while the docks are at a standstill, - i The executive of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers decided that ; hiexnbers shall remain at work, but not j‘- “do work that Was previously perform.- ‘ 'ed by striking railwaymen.

THE KING MOTORS FROM

SCOTLAND.

M Received 9. sa.m. _ ‘ LONDON, Oct. 1. ‘On-aéccofint of the ‘I-ailway strike, ‘the King is motoring to London from BalIfmoral, Scotland. . ’ SATISFACTORY RESULTS. ‘An official comndurgiquei states: An extended railway service is operating 170-day. Foodstufis 9.re.subvs_tan‘tiAa=l and diétribqtion ."»conh'inu‘es isatiéf_afi~§orfly( Stribf "ec9nomy‘ ixi ‘all'food '_st‘lifi's I'm'éiefsfsai3r,, particularly '.fil’.ill§,' iri ”oi¥ae"r ffléff (§liiT['(ii'e‘ll n'lajf:no't._sufiér. '~’l“liel‘.e:; is_ -aivfl§o”'v'igofoils ecbnomy bf pétrolu‘ a-.n‘d c'o'al- ‘in ’thé'intelse§_t of‘t_lle wholé ’col‘n—V

mfiiiity. “ ‘ " " ‘A i % ”"I*li,e‘eg*ecutiveio3£ the NaA’ci!ol’l‘al- Union_ of} Véhfclé‘ Workié-rs instrizctea its zxixéxxfbers‘ my ‘to fouch -any railway work,‘ ‘including food ‘supplies. A.tWthe request of the ’Government,Ithe last three days of the Newmarket meeting have been abandoned, involving the Jockey Club’ Stakes.

Thetmost striking improvement in the suburban services consistsof the instituting a ' ten-minute underground service on the District Railway and the Elarnpstead Tube. This, together with‘ increased services on other suburban surface lines, considerably reduced 7the congestion in the streets. Nevertheless itraflic was exceptionally heavy, Many preferred long walks to the city rather than a dreary tvait for public vehicles. The police constantly stoppedy mdtlo-rs going to the city during the morning; and ordered the drivers to give a lift to people waiting in queues. All trunk. lines are improving. ‘There are skeleton "services. on the southern railways, which are organising giioire quickly than the northern, but

‘the North-Western has announcedthat it fha,s. ,op‘e'ned communication with‘: the "north: and is booking fol"’Carlisle. M_ ’I"o-Vmiorrow the ‘Great Northern hopes to reach York. The Séouth-Eastern doubled yesterday ’s number of trains. The ‘Great Western improved yesterday’s record’. _ The Sou-th-Western is running an infrequent service as far ‘ as Portsmouth. All I‘on'g-distance trains carry armed guards.

The situation on» the Scottish railways is easier- fix dozen additional trains are running. 0 ‘A cruiser carried mails from Liverpool to Glasgow. . ‘The executive of the Transport Federation announces that 0100.000 transpdrteré are aifected by the attempted divcrsion of goods and passenger‘ traffic.. It is impossible to restrain nieinbergtaking drastic action.

The executive states: We are therefore conferring to-morrow at Caxton Hall with all trade unions likely to be involved ‘in. the dispute. In aec-ordancc with the underlying principles of trade unionism, we shall continue to support theeconomic status of the entire trade. union movement, which is involved in thepresent crisis. ' 1 S-TRIKE "LEADERS DESPERATE. V is feared to-morrovv’s conference’ wi-lldnot merely be confined to railwaymen and tr»ansportel-s, but will embrace o\f,”rhe trade unions in the" Kingdom.’ lift is -believed the strike iceder}; will aim at precipitatingq a national as the quickest means of achiev/fitglitheir ends. H I ;'J;;~I{rENrIoN TO INVOLVE ALL ; ' '. -........ ’ 1 _7+‘v'.l]VE[_ji‘*r'l>‘ll|olnas, addressing aymeeting; of that although he Wanted gtrike to .3. simpfe issue bewanted to ‘ control it, he continue‘ to refuse the‘ oflferg flgrude unions, new 'that they

are fighting with their backs to. the Vwall. _.\l:r ;'l‘homla,s stated :tll*.a=tt because he strove for peace until the last moment, the Government assumed he would desert the railwaymen. The Gov. ernment had had -:1: rude awakening. The‘ra.ilwaymcn were determineg to hit. hard until the Government awarded ail grades} the same standard of pay as the engine—drivers and firemen. If the raiilwaymen failed, God help the ‘less powerful unions, he said.

TRADE UNION OP‘IN—ION NOT UNANIM-OUS. 5

LONDON, Oct. 1

Though the conference may -agree to join the railwaymen, trade union opinion is by no means unanimoiis‘. The London dockers are understood to ‘Se against joining the strike. They have been the leading body of opinion in favour of big unions, reserving themselves for the nationalisation issue. They corisider the railwaynlen’s precipitate action prejudiced their scheme.

Mr"O’Gra€iy, Secretary -of the National Federation of -General Workers. with a membership of one and a-quarter millions, says he is watching the strike development}; anxiously. He was against ‘Parlianient interfering, but now thinks Parliament might sugge'§t a settlemexit which would let down neither Government nor railwaymen.

UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS‘

~-~— f LONDON, Oct. 1.

i A Ministry of Labour communique ‘states: Unemployment payments were not designccl to meet the present extraordinary situation, nor is the machinery sufficient to deal with such a ‘lnultitude of cases. Moreover, the State could not contemplate payments’ at the present scale if the Whole coun,tl'}"g industries are brought to a standstill, but the Government decided to Continue payment to ex: soldiers, Whether their 1 elaims=4~ar'e fmade before 01'.after the’ s.trike,Valso “tg:‘L'pay a slightly: reduced“ fate to‘__'c:'er_‘taAi_n» I_lnempley~ed 4oWi‘n'B', t 6. the f‘sthril§e__ {pi-dVided"f_tll_ey -are ‘no_l'l'-s':tl_{il<ers. V ‘The -‘G.“e’l.'e’rnml_’ent, ewing ' to magnitude ‘of the "risk, ‘invites!’ enlpleyeis to act as it agents,‘ and makehpaynaentsv to Wel'kefs who become unemployed”. . 'é "H .l_.-.FEATURE OF THE STRIKE ’

LONDON, Oct, 1

A feature of the strike is the triumph of motor lorries; some of which are running a hundred iniles from London. This method of distributing food is likely to be continued after the strike. If the tl'anspOrtel‘S fad o_m'll‘2 bus drivers strike, the Government have offers from thousands of ex-scr-vice men who have driven motor cars and lorries in France. The majority of the 'taxi—drivers continue Work.

Mr Smillfe, at Glasgow, stated that witinin a week probably 50 per cent. of the manual workers in the coun-fry would be idle_ This would create ‘a situation which ought to be avoided if 'c‘ommonsense and the welfare of the nation were observed.