Further evidence on behalf of the railway companies has been
given before the Royal Commission during the week. Mr. Marriott, goods manager on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, asserted that the Conciliation Scheme of 1907 had worked out remarkably well on his line, and no case had been made out for a material departure in principle. Mr. Whitelaw, chairman of the Highland Railway, Mr. Jackson, general, Manager of the North British Railway, and Mr. Oliver Bury,
general manager of the Great Northern, who gave evidence on Monday, expressed similar views on the Conciliation Scheme, and were all strongly opposed to recognition. No machinery which the Commission might set up would, in the opinion of Mr. Bury, compensate for recognition. On Tuesday Sir Guy Granet, general manager of the Midland, maintained that the companies accepted the existing scheme in lieu of recognition. The unions, be contended, were power- less to secure obedience to agreements or observance of their own rules. He denied that there was recogniticn of the unions at the Board of Trade on August 19th.
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