The situation grew worse as the week advanced. On Tuesday
the Executive Committee of the A.S.R.S. met in Dublin and passed a resolution threatening the companies that unless they conceded the men's demands they would authorize all railwaymen to withdraw their labour. The goods traffic on the Great Southern and the Midland Great Western has been paralysed, and the general goods traffics with England has been practically suspended, with the result that Ireland's agricultural produce is cut off from the English market and her cattle trade brought to a stand- still. Meantime the companies, with the solitary exception of the Dublin and South Eastern, have remained firm in their refusal to resist the demands of the men, and the recall of troops from their training camps to Dublin and other centres indicates that the Government is prepared to use all the forces of the Crown in Ireland to protect the railways and the men who remain on duty. At present the soldiers have only been placed on guard to "give the constabnlary a rest," and Sir James Dougherty protests against the use of the phrase "call- ing out the military." On the other hand it is alleged that the police have proved quite incapable of dealing with the intimidation and violence practised on the men who remain at work.
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