23 SEPTEMBER 1911, Page 2

Serious railway trouble has broken out in Ireland, which was

practically unaffected by the recent strike. On Friday week two men in the goods department of the Great Southern and Western Railway at Kingsbridge struck work because they were asked to handle a load of timber from a Dublin firm whose men are on strike, and were followed by all the men in the goods department and most of the platform men. By Monday the only line not affected in Dublin was the Dublin and South Eastern, which has adopted a conciliatory line to the demands of the men. Most of the men at Limerick, Waterford, and Cork bad struck, traffic on the Great Southern and Western was seriously interfered with, the cross- channel traffic was disorganized, and enormous quantities of perishable goods were held up at the North Wall. The Manager of the Great Southern and Western Railway, who has declined to accede to the demands of the men that they should not be asked to handle " blackleg " traffic on the ground of the loyal obligations of the company, accurately defines the position in a letter to Tuesday's Times. " The position thus taken up [by the Irish railwaymen] and backed by their union is that a body of men on any railway is to decide that any member of the general public may be denied railway facilities." If this position is maintained " the executive committees will constitute a separate government with which the Governmen of the country will be confronted."