TRIPLE LABOUR ALLIANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17277, 29 September 1919, Page 7

TRIPLE LABOUR ALLIANCE.

JOINT ACTION POSSIBLE.

A TRIAL OF STRENGTH.

Government resolute.

TO SEE STRUGGLE THROUGH. By Telegraph—Press —Copyright. (Received 10 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Sept. 27. There is grave danger that the entire Triple Industrial Alliance will be involved in the railway strike, and, serious as the consequences of the action of the National Union of Railwaymen must inevitably be, the feeling exists that the country may now be faced with an industrial situation of appalling, and, possibly, unprecedented magnitude, and that the railwaymen have struck the first blow in a trial of strength, in which other trades unions are only too willing to lend support. It may later be found that this dispute is being fought on the test question of whether the general high level of wages arising from the special circumstances of the war shall henceforth be regarded as the standard.

A Declaration of War. It is noteworthy that Mr. J. H. Thomas, General Secretary of the Railwaymen's Union, in. justifying the union's standpoint, repeatedly insists upon the standardisation of all grades on the same basis as that conceded to the Associatuae- Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. Standardisation on these lines is the burden of his correspondence with Sir Auckland Geddes. Observers in touch with Labour circles declare that a determination to maintain wage standards at the present level exists throughout the ranks of organised labour, especially in the industrial north, where there is serious danger that the Government's stand against the railwaymen may be interpreted by other workers as a declaration of industrial war. There are alreach disquieting symptoms of this, and there is every reason to fear that the transport workers will throw in their lot if requested. Transport Workers' Attitude. Mr. Williams, secretary of the Transport Workers' Union, declares that the strike will automatically involve the Triple Industrial Alliance, thus paralysing the whole country. Mr. Williams is one of the extremist Labour leaders, but probably he knows the sentiments of the rank and file in a dispute of this nature. The strike developed so suddenly that few indications exist of the leanings of the transport workers. The only utterance apart from that of Mr. Williams is a statement by the secretary of the London section, who declares that the vehicle workers are not likely to blackleg against the railwaymen. An extension of the strike to the dockers is equally liable. The Plymouth dockers lost no time in passing a resolution declaring that they will not be blackleg against the railwaymen.

Much defends upon the section of the Triple Alliance constitution relating to joint action. The full intervention of the Triple Alliance under ordinary circumstances would involve a matter of some little time, but the alliance thrashed out the question now disputed last March, when the country was faced by an imminent strike of railwaymen, miners, and transport workers. A settlement of the railwaymen's demands at that time averted a trial of strength, but the settlement was then conditional on the subsequent satisfaction of the railwaymen's demands for the standardisation of wages. There is every likelihood, therefore, that the. Triple Alliance will regard the present dispute as a continuation of the earlier dispute, in which case Mr. Williams' intimation of automatic joint action may speedily be realised.

Emergency Transport Organised. The Government, in pursuance of its declared policy of seeing the struggle through to a finish, is deriving considerable assistance from the organisation created in wartime. Within a few hours of the strike decision, emergency orders and regulations flowed in a rapid stream from Government Departments, differing only slightly from war-time ordinances. It will be a comparatively easy matter to revise the wartime organisation, and much invaluable time will be saved in the organisation of emergency transport by the vast supply of War Office rnotor-lorries available. An important asset also is the register of private motors suitable for transport, which was compiled during the war t" meet the needs of possible invasion. It is impossible to doubt that the strike is popular among the railwaymen. Meetings in many centres received the decision with enthusiasm. At a mass meeting, the secretary of the Rugby branch declared that the railwaymen were determined to wipe out the stain of their defeat in 1011. STATEMENT BY PREMIER. A QUARREL FORCED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed 8 pm.) LONDON, Sept. 27.

i Mr. Lloyd George has issued a ; statement in which he says that the ' precipitancy of the strike is an indication of a deliberate intention on ■ the prrt of pome individuals to forco a quarrel at any cos*. The ! ; strike has been engineered by a - 1 small body of men, seeking to exploit labour for subversive ends.