STRIKE SPREADS IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25080, 11 January 1947, Page 7

STRIKE SPREADS IN BRITAIN

Carriers Idle In Several Cities TROOPS MAY TAKE FOOD TO SHOPS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, January 10. The British carriers’ strike spread to the Merseyside area last night. The strike earlier spread from London, where 13,000 transport workers are idle, to Leeds, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Oxford, and Birmingham. The political correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that Cabinet has decided to use troops*to get food to the shops. New strikers in London yesterday included the drivers of a large company engaged in steel constructional work. “While food is congesting the ports, and railway and cold storage depots, the meat, fish, provision, and fruit markets in London are all paralysed for the fourth day by the carriers’ strike,” says the “Evening Standard.” “Although the outlook for the supplies of rationed foods for the weekend is very grim, neither the unions nor the markets have yet received any emergency plan for the distribution of London’s food. The Ministry of Food will not disclose any plans which it may introduce. “It was strongly rumoured at Smithfield that troops would be drafted into the market. The Smithfield porters’ spokesman said: ‘Should the Government attempt to introduce black-leg