BRITISH RAILWAY CRISIS

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11738, 28 January 1924, Page 6

BRITISH RAILWAY CRISIS

On the one hand, the British railway strika may well be deplored by tho Labour Government at Home as unduly complicating the difficulties with which Ministers have to deal in taking up office for the first time. But, on the other hand, if that Government has determination enough to grasp its nettles, it may welcome the deadlock as affording it an opportunity to show that it can hold the balance true as between the parties to the dispute and bring about an amicable settlement. In such a case, indeed, the greater the difficulty the greater tlie opportunity; and the greater the honour—if ony one can rise to the occasion and make good. No new-born Government of course, would wish for a strike at such a time. But, as the strike is in being, it is up to the Labour Government to deal with the situation ws best it can, and its action in regard to this matter will he awaited with the greatest interest the world over. That the strike is, in large part, a trial of strength between the more extreme and the moderate elements amongst the railwaymen at Home adds to the difficulty of the situation so far as the Labour Government is concerned, inasmuch as there are very similar divisions within the Labour Party itself. The crux of the whole position, both political and industrial, is, in fact, whether the Labour Government can control the extreme elements within the party itself and in the industrial unions; and the railway strike puts tho Government immediately to the test. With what result remains to be seen. The new Premier, Mr Ramsay Macdonald, has formulated a plan for saving the time of members, of his Cabinet by setting up special committees to deal with different questions, so that the full Cabinet can devote itself to the considers/tion of general principles and policy. No doubt one of the first committees to he established in accordance with this scheme will be one for determining what is best to he done in connection with the railway crisis. One of the Ministers (Mr J. H. Thomas) is, of course—or “was,” we’ should rather 6ay—secretary to the National Union of Railwaymen, the more moderate of the railway organisations between whom the trial of strength is taking place, and that fact might well place him in a very invidious position. But Mr Maodouald has apparently provided against any danger of that sort by a “self-denying ordinance,” for we learn that all Ministers have resigned their trade union positions, including Mr J. H. Thomas, Mr Vernon Hartshorn, Mr Stephen Walsh, Mr J. R. Clynes, Mr E. Shlnwell, and Miss Margaret Bondfield, the first lady Minister, as she was this year the first woman to preside over the Trade Union Congress.