SIR ERIC GEDDES BLAMED

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10397, 30 September 1919, Page 5

SIR ERIC GEDDES BLAMED

A LOOPHOLE THAT BECAME BLOCKED. -K • At a meeting in the Albert Hall, Mr C. T. Cramp (president of the National Union of Bailwayraen), characterised as a deliberate lie the statement that the strike was not in defence of some union principle or right, but against the community. Mr Thomas flatly denied the Premier’s assertion that the latter had pleaded for a respite of two or three days. Ho challenged Mr Lloyd George to produce his notes bearing out his assertion. Mr Thomas added that ho and the executive were convinced that if Mr Lloyd George were master of his own house a settlement would have resulted. Ho suggested that Sir Eric Gcddcs and Sir Auckland Geddes wero the stumbling-blocks to a compromise. Sir Eric Geddes was posing as tho strong man. He gave an instance at Friday's negotiations when ho (Mr Thomas) thought ho saw a loophole in a remark by Mr Lloyd George. He instantly seized the opportunity, but before the words wore out of his mouth. Sir Eric Geddes cut in with “Wo can’t do that.” Mr Thomas, in an interview on Sunday, said ho was still anxious for a settlement, but the attempt to turn the dispute into other than a Labour question complicated the situation, making it dangerous. Ho has definitely refused to widen the issue. TOO GREAT A BURDEN. Tho official report of tho conference shows that the union demanded that tho existing war wages should bo made tho pe.rmanont standard wage, and also that the maximum should bo 60s weekly for workers who wore earning 18s before the war, and are now earning 51s. Tho Government’s offer was 40s permanently, plus a bonus of I3s, fluotuathing at the end of tho year as the cost of living falls. . Mr Lloyd George admitted that llic railwayman were disgracefully, paid before tho war, but that was no reason for imposing a burden that tho community could not bear. Ho regretted fhe strike decision as hasty, since tho gu» r antco that there should be no re-

duetion in wages' until 1920 gave ample time for further negotiation. MR THOMAS QUOTES FIGURES “EIGHT FOR A JUST PRINCIPLE.” j Air J. H. Thomas, in an interview, stated that the railway stoppage is complete from John o' Groats to Lands End. -Many would regard tho upheaval as an attack upon the whole constitution of the country. Somo would welcome that, and the Press was making it the issue. Ho begged the Press to refrain from doing anything to make worse an already difficult situation. “Tho railway-men,” he said, “will not bo diverted from fighting for a just principle. Let the public judge the figures. Platelayers in .. South Wales are offered a maximum of 44s per week, standard rate. They must work side by side with colliery platelayers, governed by the same conditions of rent, and cost of living, whose present fixed standard was 71s, and upwards. Shunters, whose mortality- on the railways was one m nineteen killed and injured, wore offered a maximum of CCV;, which does not affect more than 20 per coni. They work side by side with colliery shunters, whose standard is 76s to 103 s. Treating them ns ordinary common labourers, and comparing thorn with the lowest labour in flourmills, the’ latter have a minimum of £3, while tho builder’s labourer lias a minimum of lud per hour in largo towns. Compare the Government’s offer to a passenger and goods guard, with long experience of railway work, of a maximum of 60s, with the standard rate for ’bus conductors of 73s Cd after three months’ service, and that of a tram conductor, 70s for an ordinary week’s wages. My last offer to thei Government was simple. It abandoned everything except oneroqueyst—namely, would tho Government treat other grades on the same principle as it treated drivers and firemen ? The answer was ‘No.’ Whether the executive had called tho strike or not, do the public for one moment believe that 300,000 men would ho content to work under conditions where the principle conceded by Government to one grade was denied them? It would bo impossible, and the railways would bo one seething furnace from January to December.” .

Mr Thomas added that Mr Lloyd ’George at the conference made a suggestion in which he (Air Thomas) saw a ray of hope, but Sir Eric Geddcs immediately said to Mr Lloyd George, “You cannot possibly accept that.” Air Thomas added that never in all his experience had ho found so determined a desire on the part of some of tho advisers of the Prime Minister to do everything to prevent a settlement.