SAVING THEIR FACES.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1918, Page 7

SAVING THEIR FACES.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TRAIN SERVICES. . (From Our Own t'orrospondent). Wellington, Jan. i'X In announcing to-day that Cabinet lian decided to resume the evening suburban services in modified form, the Minister for Railways stated that the concession has been made possible by the reduction of reinforcements' and the consequent postponement of the mobilisation of some railwaymen. This is an obvious and scarcely successful attempt to save the face of the Department. The suburban services are heing resumed because the pressure of public opinion lias forced obstinate railway officials to see reason. The full story of the reduoed railway services has not been told and even now it is not possible to get a full and frank official statement of the facts. The De- | partment said in effect that if certain men were to bo released for military service the trains must be cut down. Then the trains were cut down and the Department took a ballot among the balloted railwaymen to determine who should 'be placed at the disposal of the Defence Department. But months after the services had been reduced end enormous inconveniences inflicted on the public, the promised number of men had reached the camps, and in the meantime no organised effort was being made to provide substitutes for fit railwaymen of the First Division. '. To-day the Department claims to have released all the men it promised and presumably that is the case. But the 'Department confesses that it need never have cut out the ovening suburban services, because it states now, in effect, that it can run a modified service owing to the reduction of future drains upon the railway personnel. The men whose departure made necessary the cutting out of the evening trains have gone; but trains can foe resumed now because the number of additional men to be released is not as large as was anticipated. The original statement, it will be remembered, was that if any additional men at all were taken tW trains m,ust be further reduced. The fact oT the matter is that the resumption of suburban services is a Cabinet decision, not a departmental dw-lsion. Cabinet has taken up a Ann attitude rather late in the day,