The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES” GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JAN. 23, 1945. RAILWAY UNREST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21619, 23 January 1945, Page 2

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES” GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JAN. 23, 1945. RAILWAY UNREST

At the moment of writing insufficient news from the various railway centres throughout the Dominion is available to enable a definite conclusion to be reached as to whether a general strike is to be the unhappy prospect or as to whethef the Prime Minister's appeal for patience and “wiser counsel” and his promise of retrospective payment will be considered by the members of the Ama 1 - gamated Society of Railway Servants and their supporters to be sufficient reason for reconsideration of the drastic action already taken in some districts. The Auckland branch of the society is reported to be adamant; its president states that -Mr.. Fraser’s statement does not .affect the real issue at stake. On the other hand, Westport, another of the storm centres and the locality where the ugly strike weapon was first wielded, has released a message stating that, owing to the reply received from the Prime Minister being regarded as satisfactory] the A.S.R.S. strikers had decided to. suggest that work should be started on Tuesday (to-day) at midnight, supporting organisations to be advised accordingly.

Whether this is the forerunner of better tidings to come during the day or whether the movement has gathered so much momentum in Auckland and in some other important - places that loss of much valuable working time is now inescapable.remains to be seen. Even if work is resumed at an early hour, however, harm has already been done, both from the point of view of the railway operations and the service to the public and from the angle that the section of the railwaymen responsible for the instigation of “direct action” will have lost the sympathy of the people as a 1 whole. That the department’s employees have had grounds for complaint over the wages question ,is widely acknowledged. They,.a faithful and efficient service; have had to submit to . a good .deal of evasion at the hands of a Government which has responded supinely on several occasions to the demand's of more militant unions. TRIBUNAL'S TASK

The point is, however, that they eventually got what they wanted—the establishment of their own tribunal and the chance. to submit to that body the evidence which, they hoped, would prove that their arguments for increased wages were based on sound premises. It is because oi the voluminous nature of that evidence that the tribunal is so late in giving publicity to its findings. In one sense, the workers’ impatience is understandable, but public opinion will naturally adhere to the viewpoint that, since there has been every prospect that the decisions of the tribunal will be made available early next month, it would have been an act of good grace on the part of the railwaymen if they had decided to wait a little longer before giving stronger vent to their feelings. In any case, the decision to strike cannot be condoned. To put the matter bluntly, it becomes in wartime perilously like high treason and must inevitably .embitter members "of the fighting forces overseas and all those who in the Dominion itself are making sacrifices in the cause „of the country, the Empire, and the United Nations. It is significant that in many centres there has been a disposition on the part of branches of the A.S.R.S. to use the soft pedal and to wait till they learned what the findings of the tribunal were before further representations of any kind were put in motion. Apparently the lead given by the powerful Auckland branch turned the scale and. the solidarity over which the war effort should have had. priority was misguided into channels of selfishness and complete disregard for others. PATIENCE NEEDED

There are some people who aver that the Government is to blame for the present and, it is to be hoped, very temporary impasse and that, in point of fact, “it is getting all that is coming to it.” This is a loose argument and one which is open to the charge of sheer political motive and bias. No hesitation has been shown in this column in criticising the Government on.issues which; it was eon sidered, lent themselves to criticism, but it must be conceded that the Railways Department, in difficult circumstances, has kept faith with the public reasonably well and that, in spite of its original delay in .bettering the lot of the railway workers, the Government has at last been attempting to make amends. Judgmont on its actions should therefore be suspended at least until the tribunal has finished a task which, from all accounts, h j necessarily been long and intricate.

Why there should have been th,is last-minute manifestation of . impatience by a section of the department's, employees is a moot point. One in-j terpretation is that word, based on “inside information,” may Have been going the rounds that the tribunal’s verdict was not going to be satisfactory and that the strike measures were instituted as a warning that the men were determined to get full redress. Pending evidence to . the contrary, however, it would be fairer to assume that the, decision to stop work in some districts has in reality been merely an effort to speed the announcement of the new scale of wages—a matter of great moment to the average family man in New Zealand to-day. The Dominion-wide Wish will be that justice will come the way of a conscientious section of the working community and that before it is too late to avoid the infliction of heavy losses and much inconvenience upon the rest of the country there will bo full realisation of the enormity of using the strike weapon at this time. All in all, we.incline to the belief that an early settlement of the dispute will be the outcome. The alternative would be too damaging to the reputation, of the Dominion and of the railwaymen themselves to be rethe railwaymen themselves to be 1 seriously contemplated.