Daily Telegraph

              THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
PRICE TWO PENCE    MAY 7th 1926
THE GENERAL POSITION.
TRANSPORT AND FOOD.
AN IMPROVING OUTLOOK.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT.
According to a Government statement the following was the position as regards London yesterday morning :
" Waterloo station has been opened on the " Bakerloo " line.
"London General Omnibus Company report that 800 volunteers were passed for service as drivers and conductors yesterday, and prospect is that to-night fully 2,000 trained men will be available.
" Two hundred " General " omnibuses were working this morning on the No. 1 circular route - Ealing, Hammersmith and Chiswick.
" The expectation is that by to-night (Thursday) there will be a service working at one minute intervals on the route.
Something like 80 of the L.G.O. buses failed to return to their depots at scheduled times last night owing to the damage done to them in various parts of London.
Reports as follows had been received from various centres:
Liverpool. — Over 4,500 volunteers have been enrolled, a large number of whom are engaged on work at the docks. The tramway service is running pretty well, and there are one or two food trains on the railways.
Cardiff. — Privately owned transport has increased considerably, and the Corporation 'bus service has been restarted with volunteer labour. Fish was landed yesterday in fair quantities and sent out by road transport.
Cambridge. — A number of transport workers returned to work yesterday morning, and the tramways are the only service now seriously affected. The Corporation informed the tramway men that unless they returned to work at noon yesterday they would be required to hand in their uniforms and terminate their engagements.
Southampton. - A good many lorries have been stopped on their way to London by pickets and had to return.
Hull. — The British Oil and Coke Mills have closed down.
Peterborough. - The local trades and labour council have offered to allow their electrical workers to remain in, if the City Council will undertake to supply power to the brick-workers only and not to any other industry.
General Situation. - A report has reached the Government that efforts are being made to induce the railway clerks not to facilitate in any way the release or handling of food stuffs generally.
Docks and Wharfs. In practically all cases throughout the country docks and wharfs have been closed by the strikers, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to move supplies. In some cases where the difficulty is very real, the T.U.C. have permitted voluntary workers to release food.
In the Eastern division (comprising Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hants, Norfolk, and Suffolk) intimidation has been fairly strong and has prevented the movement of some articles of food such as flour. In this division transport is extremely satisfactory, drivers of lorries generally remaining at work and 'buses running everywhere.
So far as food is concerned there is still no general shortage reported and apparently very little effort has been made to raise prices because of shortage or anticipated shortage. In one or two areas there has been a perceptible indication on the part of some people to buy rather more than they need, and the hope is expressed that people will resist this temptation.
MODERATE LABOUR.
"THE WILL TO PEACE."
LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT.
By Our Parliamentary Correspondent.
Labour leaders were very active in the House of Commons on Wednesday night and there were persistent rumours in the Lobby that a peace move might shortly be expected. Conciliatory speeches during the debate on the Emergency Regulations had created a new atmosphere and at one point Labour members thought it would be wise for the Government to move the adjournment of the House in order to see whether private discussions could not be initiated.
Mr. Herbert Smith, the president of the Miners' Federation, and Mr. A. J Cook, the secretary, were at the House. They were in touch with the more prominent members of the Parliamentary Labour Party throughout the evening, and after Mr. Ramsay MacDonald had spoken in the Chamber they had a consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Arthur Pugh, the chairman of the Trades Union Congress, also came down to the Lobby and had conversations with various people.
It was generally believed that there was a possibility of an immediate development, but the sitting of the House ended without any formal approach to the Government. The last words uttered in the debate on Wednesday night came from the lips of Mr. J. H. Thomas and left the door open for a peace move.
Yesterday the House of Commons was to resume discussion of the regulations, and it was hoped on all sides that in the course of the evening the desire of the more moderate trade union leaders to find a way out would receive encouragement. There is absolutely no change in the attitude of the Government, and the General Council of the Trades Union Congress realises that negotiations for a settlement of the coal dispute will not be resumed until a general strike is abandoned. It is clear that there is "the will to peace" in the Parliamentary Labour Party, and that it will use its best endeavours before the week-end to find a means of escape out of the present difficult situation.
Some of the miners' leaders will remain in London during the week-end in order to be at hand should negotiations be reopened. Others were being conveyed by motor car last evening to various mining districts for the purpose of addressing meetings of miners to-morrow and Sunday. A well known miners' leader expressed the opinion yesterday morning that they would be negotiating again for a settlement of the coal question "not later than next week."
RECKLESS RUMOURS.
GOVERNMENT DENIALS.
The Government officially state that a rumour in circulation that a Cabinet Minister was badly injured on Wednesday night is untrue.
Another rumour that three policeman had been murdered is also untrue, as only minor injuries have been sustained by any policeman throughout the country up to the present.