29 DECEMBER 1944, Page 4

The London Underground railway workers' Christmas Day strike

is about the most heartless piece of selfishness I have heard of for some time. Justification for it was nil. The union leaders con- demned it. Railwaymen on the main lines worked on Christmas Day without complaint. In what way did The case of the Under- ground men differ from theirs? On the grimmest Christmas Day of the war on the western front men at home refuse to work unless they are given two days off in compensation. The hardship to people who had arranged to spend Christmas Day with relatives or friends in some other part of London, and for such servicemen as happened to be on leave on that day, is impossible to calculate. But it is not impossible to imagine.