The labour troubles in South Africa have reached a critical
stage. The railwaymen's leaders have called their men out, and the Federation of Trades has promised, if a settlement has not been reached to-day, to order a general strike through. out South Africa. We deal in another column with the origin of the trouble, which began in Trade Union resentment against the policy of retrenchment on the railways, though so far only seventy men out of a total of thirty-five thousand have been dismissed. The Government, regarding the concession of the men's demands as impracticable, are taking strenuous measures to guard against the recurrence of the disorders which accompanied the strike of last July. An appeal has been issued for volunteers to act as police constables at Pretoria, where the Citizen Defence Force has been called out, a Com- mittee of Public Safety is being formed at Cape Town, and rifles have been called in at Johannesburg, where the gold mines will have to be shut down in a week if the railways cease transporting coal for the power stations. Friday's news showed that the situation was still normal in the Cape and Natal, and that the disaffection was still largely confined to the men in the workshops, the train-running staffs even in the North having so far remained firm, though the General Manager of the Union Railways anticipated that a majority of railway workers would come out.
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