NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE week ends in gloom and perplexity, a general railway strike having been declared on Thursday night. Negotia- tions had been carried on at the Board of Trade with the railwaymen and the companies all the day, and on the men declaring the root of their discontent to lie in the working of the Conciliation Boards, the Prime Minister offered a small Royal Commission to sit at once and inquire into their grievances. This the companies accepted, but the men, dis- regarding Mr. Asquith's warning, unhesitatingly refused, and the strike was declared. But in the House of Commons that night Mr. Lloyd George stated that the men had misunder- stood the terms of the Government's offer, and that negotiations had been reopened, a striking comment on the precipitancy of the strike leaders in re- solving on a general strike with only twenty-four hours' notice. The acceptance of the offer by the 'companies was a remarkable concession—unless they too misunderstood the terms—since of the three Commissioners one was to represent labour, one the companies, and the third was to be appointed by a Radical Government.
