The Prime Minister on Tuesday received the delegates .of the
. various engineering trades unions and put before them a new formula devised by Sir Allan Smith and Mr. Henderson. The Amalgamated Engineering Union rejected it, but the other forty-seven unions, of semi-skilled and unskilled men, agreed to resume their negotiations with the 'employers. The lock-out notices issued to the members of these unions were withdrawn and the parties will meet next week. The leaders of the skilled engineers, unhappily, talk of " fighting to the bitter end "—which is always foolish in industrial disputes, and is sheer madness in this case, where the parties are contending about ambiguous phrases that they will not define. The shipyard workers are still on strike against a reduction of the War bonus. In the ballot taken by their unions only a third of the members troubled to vote, and they rejected the employers' terms by a majority of about three to one. As there are no orders for new ships at present prices, and as the main item in the cost of shipbuilding is wages, the strikers are penalising themselves.
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