It was announced on Friday that the Belfast strike bad
been settled. The men are to return to work at a considerable all-round increase of wages, varying from 2s. to 5s. The masters, on the other hand, are to have complete liberty to employ Trade-Unionists or non-Unionists, and carters are to work wherever ordered. Overtime pay is to be at the rate of 6d. an hour. All concerned in the settlement are to be congratulated upon the fairness and good spirit shown during the last few days, for had not a settlement been arrived at it is to be feared that there must have been a great deal more bloodshed. Happily we need not now dwell upon the rioting of the earlier part of the week, except to say that it involved three deaths among the rioters and many injuries to the soldiers, who not only repeatedly charged with the bayonet, but were on more than one occasion obliged to use ball-cartridge. A curious feature of the riots was that the persons involved do not seem to have been as a rule the strikers, but those whom we may describe as the professional rioters of Belfast,—the men who, at any period of excitement, descend into the Falls Road to do battle there with each other or with the police and the military.
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