London Will Not Soon Forget Bus Strike

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 10

London Will Not Soon Forget Bus Strike

[Specially written for “The Press” by A.R.C.}

LONDON, June 21. To the Londoner the streets of his city have looked “funny” in the last weeks without the buses. This morning the recentlyarrived visitor from New Zealand finds the scene more than a little changed by their presence. The increased number of private cars on the roads has never caused quite the congestion that is .normal when the big red doubledeckers are ploughing majestically through the crowded streets; but now the traffic jams are again piling up and being unpiled without fuss and with the greatest good humour, by the imperturbable London “bobbies v The strike may have made the streets look “funny”; but it has been no joke to the Londoner or to the out-of-town commuter. There is a limit to what can be done in “staggering” office and factory hours;. and for hundreds of thousands of Londoners getting to and from work each day has meant a struggle something akin to that of a late comer trying to get a footing on the “bank” at Lancaster Park for a test match between the Springboks and the All Blacks. Londons underground railway system is magnificent; but it was never meant to carry the millions of passengers it has handled in the last few weeks. It was the underground, in fact, that broke the strike—together with the patience and resilience of the Londoners. Not many persons—least of all Mr Cousins, perhaps—could have foreseen how little difference the withdrawal of the city’s principal means of passenger transport would make to the economic life of the metropolis. A few workers arrived late every day; but few failed to arrive. Business went on as usual, even if it 'was preceded by and followed by a battle for space to stand and to breathe—just—in a tube train or a two or three-tnile walk in the rain. Lucky were those Londoners whose walk to work took them through the

lovely parks which are still one of the chief glories of this city. The Londoner may joke about the strike; but make no mistake about it, he has resented the attempt to use him as a choppingbloke in an industrial dispute. The pleas that will' now be made for a better sense of industrial responsibility and a more rational method of resolving disputes will undoubtedly have a new meaning for him. New Zealanders in London, remembering the arguments over the Dominion’s statutory requirements for ballots on strike action, must have nodded approvingly over a brief letter in “The Times this morning: “May l one inquire why, if a. vote by the busmen is necessary before they can go back to work, it is not also necessary before they are called out on strike?”