DELAYED BY STRIKES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17130, 8 April 1919, Page 9

DELAYED BY STRIKES.

RETURN OF NEW ZEALANDERS

CONDITIONS IX BRITAIN.

GEN. RICHARDSON'S EFFORTS

[from our own coruespondent.] LONDON, Feb. 27. The dockers and other workers who i have been on strike in England during the | ! last few weeks have very seriously upset tbe demobilisation programme of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. General Richardson's schema which had already J been put in motion, provided for the re--1 natriation of at least 10,000 men a month, and there are now 18 vessels on the waitin? list allocated to this work, but. in ; consequence of the strikes only one has ' been dispatched in the last mouth, and that got away largely by reason of the men themselves undertaking the work, i Some weeks ago General Richardson | went personally to the headquarters of the Strike Committee and pointed out to the officials there the seriousness of delaying our transports- Many of our men, he ! said, had away from New Zealand for four years or more and they were naturally anxious to get back to their homes. They fe t very keenly, after four vears of comradeship with the British workers in the lield, the fact that their return homo wan being delayed by tho ] action of British workers. Moreover General Richardson pointed out that it was a serious matter to many men who belonged to the Dominions to be compelled to spend a few months extra in the British climate, which has had a bad effect upon the health of many of them. , There had also been a serious congestion j of men in England awaiting transportai tion, as the result of which one or two | extra camps had had to be opened in Great Britain to accommodate them. General Richardson added that the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was quite ; capable of working and even repairing I its own ships, but they would bo very | reluctant to do anything which would be i of the nature of strike-breaking, to tha ' detriment of their British comrades. Therefore, he appealed to the leaders to , do what they could to facilitate the dispatch of our transports . The Strike Com"inittee expressed regret that the steps they j felt compelled to take had caused so much inconvenience to the New Zealand troops, and promised to facilitate the New Zealand demobilisation. Unfortunately, the interview and the trood intentions of the Strike Committee "had no apparent result, for three weeks have now passed without a single ship having got away. Yesterday General Riohardson aigaitn waited on the Committee and ooint-ed out that he had appealed to their generosity not to allow their quarrels to injure men who had come from the other end of the world to fight side by side with the i British soldier, whose last wish was to interfere in British industrial quarrete. He did not wish to use it as a threat, but he did wish the Committee to understand that the New Zealand Expeditionary Force ! were fully able to work their own ships, ' and that the temper of the men was now . such that they might decide to go into . 1 the docks and* do the necessary work in ! defiance of the labour unions _ i The strike leaders replied again re- 1 Fretting that New Zealand had been so badly nit by the dislocation, and gave ' General Richardson to understand that a mass meeting had practically decided unon resuming work on Monday or Tuesday. In the meanwhile the Westmoreland is 'due to embark her troops at Liverpool tomorrow alternCOn. There is a list of 19 other vessels awaiting dispatch as soon as | the labour question is settled. |