SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18340, 2 September 1921, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN RAILWAYS

RETRENCHMENT SCHEME. HOURS AND PAY REDUCED. Press Association—By Telegraph— Copyright CAPETOWN, September 1. (Received Sept- 1, at 9.50 p.m.) In connection with the Government’s retrenchment proposals the Railway Administration announces that instead of discharging men, except a number of temporary employees, it is intended to introduce siio time in the workshops, reducing the hours to 43| weekly, with a corresponding reduction in pay.—Reuter. Workers’ Mills. We make bread, hot profits. The mills and bakery are now the property of the workers. It is hoped that prices will be reduced and profiteering abolished within a day. By order of the workers.” Both Red and Sinn Fein flags fly over the building. The union claims that since it took over the control it has doubled the bakery’s output, and intends increasing the stag to cope with customers’ demands.—A. and N.Z. Cable. PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. DOMINION HOME RULE. GENERAL SMUTS’S VIEWS. CAPETOWN, August 31. (Received Sept. 1, at 8.45 p.m.) General Smuts vrsts accorded a civic welcome. In the course of a speech he dealt with the Dish situation. He said that he tried, on his arrival in England, to see if some moderating influence could not be brought to bear upon a horrible situation. He adopted the attitude that if he had anything to do with it it must be upon two conditions. First, he would not take action unless invited by the leader of the Irish people themselves. He acted only when he received that invitation. The second condition was that he did not want to bo connected with the British Government, but to act from an entirely outside point of view as a third party, bringing to bear on an old situation the peculiar experience he had acquired during many bitter years in the history of Africa. On those conditions ho entered into a discussion with all the parties concerned. He succeeded in persuading the British Government that any scheme of Home Rule, to give satisfaction in Ireland, would have to go much further than they had gone (before. He explained the dominion point of view, and the Government agreed with him tliat that was the solution. Now they had reached a difficult but by no means hopeless stage, but they must not be under the impression that what he had done had been a failure. He felt satisfied that success would come from the people talking peace instead of murdering each other. There was' a new atmosphere in Ireland. It would take time and perseverance, but they were on the right road. He believed that the British Government and the other parties would be persuaded to come down to bedrock, which was dominion Home Rule. KING’S DESIRE FOR PEACE. LONDON, September 1, (Received Sept. 1, at 8.5 p.m.) The King, replying to. an address from the Convocation of Canterbury, says: ' Let us thank God that some measure of response has been vouchsafed to my appeal to the Irish people. With a full heart I pray that their reconciliation may be consummated by the deliberations now proceeding; that they may be united, making a new era for their native land.”— A. and N.Z. Cable.