BRITISH RAILWAYS

Waikato Times, Volume 91, Issue 14241, 16 December 1919, Page 7

BRITISH RAILWAYS

STRIKE SIDELIGHTS. The latest English filos dealing with the earliest stage of the recent railway strike indicate clearly the British Govsrnment's preparedness for the gre.it upheaval. Little wonder, on looking over the flies, that the state of organisation, on land, on sea, and even in the air was such as to stagger not only the strikers, but the public generally.

Of the British Government's weapons of defence, one of the strongest was the establishment of a vast motor lorry and motor car service. The following from the Morning Post illustrates how the challenge that was thrown down to the nation by tho railwaymen was accepted by the people : "The Government asked' for volunteers to drive the motor lorries and ! motor ears which arc to be employed [in supplying food to the people. The 1 response was amazing. It overwhelmed the staff which had been hastily mobilised to organise the service. For every man that, was needed there were something like 100 volunteers. It was a case not of finding men to do the work, but of picking and choos-

ing from among the multitude of experienced men who were anxious to do it. The rush of volunteer drivers began on Sunday, and so heavy was the work that the staff were kept busy all night. Still more volunteers from all parts of London and the home counties surged up to headquarters on the following day. Paeed with this emergency situation, the officers were almost at their wits' end to deal' adequately with all the men and woman who offered their services—for in the crowd there was a plentiful sprinkling of women who drove cars and other army vehicles during the war. At 11 in the morning something like a th'ou-

Bond drivers were in the street, trying to force their way into the offices near Hyde Park. Police had to control tho crowd of applicants, all eager to get in and get to work. It was almost like the gallery-door of Drury Lane, in the old-fashioned pantomime days, before queues were Invented. Inside the house the work was so bustling and so unfamiliar, transacted in all sorts of rooms and corridors, that the attendants were bewildered, and confessed that they did ncrtknow wherJ to find anybody. Little that mattered to the drivers who had got through the doors.' Trim, alert young men, nearly all with war service to their credit, filled up pink slips setting out their qualifications, then found out for themselves the room in which their business could be one. "We are willing to go anywhere, do anything, and work any hours you like," was the general statement of their desirtf "One young man, who had lost part of a leg' in the war, said he was willing t<> do 'any thing that's wanted.' Informed that a clerical job would be found for him as soon as the office staff was organrsed he said 'Very well; and I'll try to borrow a moior car for you in the interval. His name was entered as Lord Douglas. One man said: 'I have a Rolls-Royce, a Humber limousine, a six-cylinder Napier, and three other cars, and you can have the lot, but I have no drivers.' That was very easilv arranged. A countryman said he had seven draught horses waiting outside. Were they any use? They were, and thank you. A constable opened the street door, inviting four men to volunteer for an immediate job. There was almost a free fight to get in." A clergyman's example at Birmingham was an indication of the trend of feeling against the precipitate action of the strikers. As the strikers at Birmingham, according to one report, refused to come in and look after their horses, the London and Northwestern district goods manager and the local horse superintendent themselves fed, watered, and attended to the whole stud of 600 horses. As it was impossible for these two men alone to conlinue to cover the whole of this work, an appeal Was made in one of the local churches, with the result that the minister and thirty men of the congregation, some of them attired in frock coats and silk ITa : s, went to the principal station and attended to the horses there. The strike had not long burst upon the Britis'h public when 20,000 motor drivers had been registered for service.