THE LATE STRIKE

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16800, 19 May 1926, Page 7

THE LATE STRIKE

RESUMPTION OF INDUSTRY A HITCH AT MANCHESTER. FALLACY OF A GENERAL HOLD-UP. [Sydney Sun Cable.l LONDON, May 17. Britain lias re-donned dungarees and the wheels are going round almost at full pressure. The strikers arc taken hack ns circumstances permit. Fifty per cent, of the railwayman are working. The railway dockers resumed to the inspiring strains of drums and fifes, which played off llic guardsmen on strike Tyneside has settled down to woVlc willi North County canniness. Four thousand men arc idle in Manchester owing to a hitch regarding the employment of non-unionists. Conditions elsewhere are normal. The London evening papers have reappeared in complete editions. Mr Cramp, speaking at Plymouth, said tile strike cost (lie National Union of Railwaymcn £1,000.000 and the railway companies £5,000,000. A general strike would never occur again, because it was impossible to carry it out effectively, if carried to its logical conclusion the trade unions would be starved and paralysed .as well as everybody else. The railway unions had saved their lives by accepting the companies’ terms. DEFRAYING THE COST. NO ADDITIONAL TAXATION. (Australian and N.Z. Press Assn.) LONDON, May 17. In the House of Commons, answering questions with regard to the cost of the strike, Mr Winston Churchill (Chancellor of the Exchequer) said at present he saw no reason arising from the strike to propose additional taxation. He did not anticipate any 1 appreciable disturbance in the current financial year as the result of the strike, the effect of which could not accurately be estimated. The Government’s direct expenditure possibly would not be large, and in some cases i there would be countervailing receipts and saving on ordinary expenditure. ’ Mr Churchill did not anticipate the i» expenditure on food transport would l exceed £750,000, and might be less. The effect on direct taxation would mainly appear in next year’s estimates, and any loss of profits might be made up-by increased trade activity in the interval, assuming that the coat * stoppage is not greatly prolonged and that there is an early return to normality. He saw no reason to propose additional taxation. Mr Churchill's statement in the ; House of Commons regarding the effects of the strike on the Budget upset lobby gossip as to a possible increase of threepence in the income tax and heavy taxes on tobacco and beer in the supplementary Budget. Mr Churchill made it clear that the effects of the strike would not be evident till next Budget.