LONDON BUS STRIKE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 186, 4 May 1937, Page 9

LONDON BUS STRIKE

Congestion in City at Midnight THOUSANDS WALK HOME By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, May 2. The presence of Cup tie crowds, combined with the usual crush of Londoners, led to remarkable scenes in London at midnight. The crowds, relying on the tube railways for their return home, in the absence of buses, found the stations already blocked and the trains packed, and many who were stranded on the platforms when the last trains departed sought taxis iu vain, these being all engaged. Thousands of people had a long tramp home. All who possessed cars used them to go to the theatres, resulting in unprecedented traffic blocks when the audiences poured out into the streets again. COMMENT BY PRESS Problem of Settling Dispute (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, May 2. London morning papers deplore the withdrawal of the buses at a time when the city is crowded with visitors for the Coronation, and express the view that the men are alienating sympathy which would be with them in a reasoned appeal for reconsideration of their conditions in the light of the strain of city traffic. The “Daily Herald” (Labour), says: “It is no longer a problem of preventing a dispute but of settling it,” and that no time should be losb in securing a settlement. The Ministry of Labour has set up a Court of Inquiry under the 1919 Industrial Courts Act, “to inquire into and report upon the question of the hours of work, working conditions, and circumstances of employment of drivers and conductors in the London central omnibus service and the matters at issue between the London Passenger Transport Board and the Transport and General Workers’ Union.” The court will meet publicly on Monday, when evidence will be given by the two sides. Central London presented an unusual appearance yesterday morning in the absence of the lines of familiar omnibuses, 5000 of which have been withdrawn from the streets by the strike. Traffic seemed no less congested, however, as large numbers of additional private cars had evidently been brought into use, and whatever diminution the coincidence of the first day of the strike with the Saturday halfday may have caused in the numbers of incoming workers was more than made up by the’ “invasion” from the provinces for the football Cup tie at Wembley in the afternoon. From an early hour, when specials began to arrive at the London termini, the pavements of the Coronation route were thronged with supporters of the two teams viewing the decorations which are now in an .advanced stage in preparation for Wednesday week.