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Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1330, 19 April 1922, Page 4

BRITISH RAILWAYS. The, latest English files dealing with the earlier stage of the recent railway strike indicate clearly the British Government's preparedness for the great upheaval. Little wonder, on looking over the files, that the 6tate of organisation on land, on sea, and even in the air was such as to stagger not only the strikers,; but the public generally. Of the British Government's weapons of defence one of the strongast was the establishment of a vast motor lorry and motor car service. The following from the ' Morning Post' illustrates how the challenge that was thrown down to the nation by the railwaymen was accepted by the people:— "The Government asked for volunteers to drive the motor' lorries and motor cars which are to be employed in supplying food to the people. The response was amazing. It overwhelmed the staff which had been hastily mobilised to organise the service. For every man that was needed there were something like 100 volunteers." It was a case not of finding men to do the work, but of picking and choosing from among the multitude of experienced men who were anxious to do it. The rush of volunteer drivers began on Sunday, and so heavy was the work that the staff were kept busy all night. Still more volunteers, from all parts of London and the home counties •surged up to headquarters ou the following day. Faced with this emergency situation, the officers were almost at their wits' end to deal adequately with all the men and women who offered their services—for in the crowd there was a plentiful sprinkling of women who drove cars and other army vehicles during the war. At 11 in the morning something like a thousand drivers were in the street, trying to force their way into the offices near Hyde Bark. Police had to control the crowd of applicants, ail eager to get in and get to work, it was almost like the gallery door of Drury lane in the old-fashioned pantomime days, before queues were invented. Inside the house the work was so bustling and sq unfamiliar, transacted in all sorts of rooms and corridors, that the attendants were bewildered, and confessed that they did not know where to find anybody. Little that mattered to the drivers who had got through the doors. Trim, alert, young men, nearly all with war service to their credit, filled up pink slips setting out their qualifications, then found out for themselves the room in which their business could be done, " We are willing to go anywhere, do, anything, iand work any hours'you like," was the general statement of their desire. " Ope yoang man, who had lost part of a leg in the war, said he was willing to do ' any - thing that's wanted.' Informed that a ftleriaal job would b» found for ten

as soou us the office staff was organised, he said: 'Very well; and I'll try to borrow a motor car for you in the interval. His name was entered as Lord Cecil Douglas. One man said: 'I have a Rolls-Royce, a number limousine, a six-cylinder Napier, and three other cars, and you can nave tiie lot. But I havo no drivers.' That was very easily arranged. A countryman said he had seven draught horses waiting outside. Were they any use? They were, and thank you. A constable opened the street door, inviting four men to volunteer for an immediate job. There was almost a free tight to get in." f A clergyman's example 'at Birmingham was an indication of the trend of feeling against the precipitate action of the strikers. As the strikers at Birmingham, according to one report, refused to come in and look after their horses the London and Northwestern district goods manager and the local horse superintendent themselves fed, watered, and attended to the whole stud of 600 horses. As it was impossible for these two men alone to continue to cover the whole of this work an appeal was made in one of the local churches, with the result that the. minister and 30 men of the congregation, some of thenv attired in frock coats and silk (hats, went to the principal station and attended to 'the horses there. The strike had not long burst upon the British public when 20,000 motor drivers had been registered for service. I cannot resist, the suspicion (says "Diarist" in the 'Westminster Gazette') that Mr "Pussyfoot" Johnston must know something about the sudden appearance on my desk of Mr Randolph Wellford Smith's book, 'The Sober World.' It comes from a Boston firm of publishers, and it is full of extraordinary theories and arguments. I am quite prepared to- admit that alcohol has., done much harm, but must I pretend to agree 'that it is entirely responsible for the war, and to believe that Germany prepared for war by "doping" the rest of the world with drink; that she was financed during the war by the breweries which she had financed as a preparation in other countries; that she cherished a scheme of world-conquest based upon the exploitation of beer; and rhat drink is responsible for Sinn Fein, for Bolshevism, for anarchy, fer the debasement of literature, for "the altogether"'in< art—for everything to which anybody, has ever objected, in fact? r \,