MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1918, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

THE STRIKE TROUBLE. JffiN LED INTO A TRAP.. STRIKERS RETURNING TO WORK. vr m. ■. London, Sept 20. Mr. Thomas, MJ>., organising secretary of tkl Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, speaking at Cardiff, said: '•The Cabinet told me it had accepted the Ben's challenge and not a comma of the agreement would be altered, even if the whole union came out. Cabinet said they were going to discharge their duties as a Government regardless of the consequences or tsie circumstances. If I were Premier I would have done the same thing." Mr. Thomas said that food was rotting at the docks. His reference to the war position aroused loud cheers. Mr. Thomas concluded: "Then show you believe in the war. The men have been kd into a tap and now reulise it. Tiey are ashamed to walk the sheets." The strikers are returning in South Wales, and on the Great Western system generally. Some London strikers have returned, and it is expected the resumption will be general to-day. Mr. Thomas has tendered his resignation at secretary of the union. He £»ys dejectedly: "I have lost my power as leader, and I feel no longer able to guarantee the men's honor."

Mr. Thomas is very ill and may not persist in his resignation. He states that he has been officially assured that there will be no victimisation.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.

Beetived Sept 27, 10 SO pmLoßatn. Sept. 26. The railwaymen's executive passed an expression of confidence in Mr Thomas, and asked him to reconsider his resignation when in better health. Mr Thomas says hi* decision U ftnal.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc A statement from a reliable source regarding the strike of Clyde shipwrights and other shipyard trades, which has spread to Barrow and the east coast of Scotland, points out that the action of the men, who demand a minimum wage of £6 weekly, is disavowed by their executives; moreover, it Is a repudiation of the undertaking by the shipyard' trades unions that there would be no stoppage of work, contained in the scheme to secure the utmost protection which was framed by them and their employer* last ApriL Ac ship production is the most vital national necessity the Government must act ftfomntly. The law provides three ■Mtaods: The enlistment is the army of the strikers of military age; the prosecution of the ring-leaders under the Defense of the Realm Act; the fining of strikers by the Monitions Tribunal. The decision of the Government will probably be announced shortly.—Aus. Sf. Cable Assoc, and Reuter.