There is an unfortunate dispute in the London Printing trade
which intimately concerns the Spectator. On Friday, March 20th, the London Bookbinders . were locked out as no settlement had been reached on the demand of the men to be paid higher rates for working certain machines. It must be added that the employers gave as an additional reason for the lock-out that the workers had disregarded the instructions of their officials and that it was essential to enforce discipline. This stoppage affected nearly 5,000 workers. Several pub- lishers' binding establishments closed down. The Union of Printing, Bookbinding, Machine Ruling and Paper Workers replied to the lock-out notices by giving notice of a strike of its members in the general printing and periodical printing industries of London. The Spectator is one of those periodicals which were at once affected by' the sympathetic strike. Negotiations have been going* on with the help of the Joint Industrial Council, but when we go to press it is uncertain whcthePthe strike will be settled in time for the members of the unions concerned to handle the Spectator in its final stages of pro- duction and distribution. If there is delay, as we fear there Will be, in the delivery of the Spectator this week we will ask our readers indulgently to accept this explan- ation, and to believe in our sincere regret.
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