The Tramway Trouble.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16358, 1 November 1918, Page 6

The Tramway Trouble.

lii to-day's paper we print a letter from Mr Hunter, tho secretary of tho Tramwaymen s Union. Since we are anxious that the tramwaymen should not feel that they are denied a hearing, we have considered ourselves bound to print the letter, but we do so with regret, for it assuredly is not at all likely assist towards that early and honourable settlement of the trouble which tho people desire. Mr Hunter, we need hardly say, is fully entitled to discuss the rise in the cost of living, within the bounds of relevancy, sua to put as effectively as he can the case for a rise in wages, nor can he be denied the privilege of criticising the Board. But there are always two ways of doing anything—the right way and the wrong way; and Mr Hunter lias not chosen the right way. He is aggressive in a situation in which a spirit of conciliation is plainly, necessary; and lie is disrespectful to the public, whose sympathy he desires, in avoiding altogether the one point which now concerns them, namely the reason why the go-slow tactics are persisted in. The public are already agreed that the men should be better paid, and they are not 'interested at all for the time being in tho way in which the Board conducts its meetings. What they are waiting for is a sign that tha union will restore the normal running jf the cars and go peacefully to a con" < Ference with the Board. Sooner or! later the union will have to do that, J ind unless it acts quickly the public's j patience will come to an end and the ! nen will have lost their strongest support. We hesitate to believe that the mion contemplates continuing the dis>ute in order to dislocate tho oming holiday traffic, but the ques- j ion at issue is so simple and the duty ; if the men so plain that unless the reek-end meeting votes for peae*, the

public will be forced to conclude thai the union is deliberately inviting the serious consequences that will follow the disorganisation of the service nexl week. We hope that Mr Hunter's illconceived letter is no more than a final blowing-off of steam preparatory to a return to common-sense and reason. There is no decisive development officially recorded to-day in the position of Germany. The German newspapers appear to be more emphatically demanding that Germany must confer with the Entente on equal terms, but simultaneously there is progress in the breaking up of the Prussian domination of the Empire. In Bohemia a republic has been proclaimedj and Austria's disintegration proceeds apace. On the Western front no great change is recorded, but there are indications of increased pressure by the Americans west of the Meuse. The liveliest operations are still those across the Piave, which has been crossed from a point north-east of Monte Grappa as far south as San Dona. The attack in the centre has made great progress, our line having been pushed as far as Vittorio, and we shall presently see a large enemy withdrawal between I Vittorio and tlhe sea.

o—-0—-Owing, in the Prime Minister's words to the greatly increased cost of livin due to the war, the Government, s Mr Massey announces, has determine to grant to public servants this yea war bonuses totalling £589,000. Thes bonuses are in addition to the repeat© war bonus of £463,000, so that th actual war bonus for public servant this year will be over a million storling We hold to the opinion which we es pressed when the original bonus wa given, that it is utterly wrong in prin ciple for the Government to single ou a section of the community to be sub sidised by the rest of the communit; in this way. There is no sound prin ciple to which the Government can ap peal for defence if they are asked t< be consistent, and to provide eimila bonuses for every citizen in the conn try whose income is within the limit: within which the bonus to public Ber vants applies. ♦ What claim has the public servant upon the national pursa for a war bonu* which cannot be put forward by ever] other citizen of tho State? The publi< servant is an employee of the State and is entitled to be paid a reasonable wage, but the shovelling out of mil lions in tips and douceurs involves ai entirely false conception of the purpose for which the public subscribes (compulsorilyi to tho national funds. Th< public servants say, of course, that private employers have granted bonuses to their cmployeos, and that the Government should do tho same as *'£ model employer." There is no analogy Tho money tho private employer pays out is his own money; the money the Government asks Parliament to pay oul is not the Government's, nor any member's —it is th© money of people upon whom the cost of living presses just as severely as upon the public servants. ♦ A note that is increasingly clear in most of tho discussions of the terms to be imposed upon Germany, is a desire for the punishment of those Germans who have been responsible for the terrible crimes that blacken Germany's record. The statement by Sir George Cavo, which we printed yesterday, contains a welcome hint that in respect of those responsible for the illtreatment of prisoners of war the British Government means business. Although in eome cases the responsibility for crimes against humanity in this war cannot be finally fixed on any individual as. a responsibility not covered by his position, yet the ill-treatment of prisoners is not in this class, ltesponsibility here can be clearly fixed. There is a good precedent for the punishment of the brutes who have misused British prisoners. During the American Civil War a certain Major Wirz became notorious as tho commandant of the Confederate Prison Camp at Andersonville, where the Federal prisoners were horribly illused. He was capturcd by the Union troops, and, having been taken to Washington, was tried by Court-martial for cruol and inhuman treatment of prisoners of war in violation of the practice of civilised nations. Ho was found guilty and hanged. ■■ «

In "The Times" of September 11th there is an account of tho various German lined of dcfenco which was probably accurate onough. The Hind enburg line, which our armies had reached at that date, ran from a point west of Lens southward through St. Quentin and La Fere then curving between Laon and Soissons south-eastward to Rhoims. The 6econd line fan from Lille through Douai, Cambrai, east of La Fere, through Sissonne, and then through Vouziers to the Moselle at Pagny, south of Metz. This ia the Hunding-Brunnhilde line, which has beon broken everywhere. The next line I ran from Douai, through le Cateau, i and thence just south of Hirson, j Mezieres, Sodan, and Montmedy, join- | ing the other lines at Pagny. Another line under construction ran almost dno eastward from Valenciennes to Givet, which is about 30 miles south of Namur. Two points will striko anyone who traces these lines on the map. The first is that tho offensive through Flanders across the Scheldt turns them all, whence wo may assume that the enemy was very (oniident of holding on there. Tho second point is that ho has the pivot in th© Metz region covered very strongly indeed. Progress along the Meuse would shako the enemy's centre positions, and would compel the ultimate abandonment of all but 6uch a line as the enemy may have constructed along the Mouse to Namur.