The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen are threatening
a strike to begin on or after next Tuesday. Mr. Bromley, Secretary of the Association, has announced that the strike will certainly take place unless the Government consent to inquire into the affair at Mallow in which two members of the
Society were killed and others wounded. These unfortunate men were killed and wounded, of course, as a result of the disturbed state of Ireland. Railway workers have no greater grievance against the Government than is possessed by every other class of society. The real grievance is against Slim Fein. Mr. Bromley declares that his action is due merely to a desire to secure personal safety for railway workers. That will impose upon nobody. Under the guise of a Labour trouble he is plunging his union into a political dispute. It is Direct Action under yet another alias. When we go to press we do not know what the sister railway unions will have to say to Mr. Bromley's move. Only a few days ago Mr. J. H Thomas was denouncing strikes as wrong and futile. But the Prime Minister has given the only possible answer, and has, we are glad to say, given it promptly. " The Government will consider the question purely on its merits, and without reference to these improper threats."
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