§ SIR EDWARD WATKIN (Hythe)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been drawn to the following extracts from a Circular, stated to have been issued to the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants by Mr. Edward Harford, Secretary of that Body, as reported in The Times of Monday last, in reference to the strike of drivers and firemen on the Midland Railway:—
The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants will, so far as its members are concerned, give the fullest protection to any man who may be intimidated in declining to act as a 'black-leg.' And if there should be, although it is not expected that there is, one who will allow himself to be used for any such purpose, he will most assuredly expect the power and the censure, if 1879 not something worse, of the organization named. Therefore, every Society man is entreated to stand firm and resolute in his determination to refuse the Midland Company assistance in this dispute;what steps be proposes to take to protect workmen who wish to dispose of their labour in their own way from these threats; and, how he proposes to deal with Mr. Edward Harford (who is not now a workman) in respect of this intimidation?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. STUART-WORTLEY) (Sheffield, Hallam)(who replied) said: The Circular alleged to have been issued by Mr. Harford may amount to an offence under the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, if the surrounding facts show that it was used to intimidate any workman from disposing of his labour as may please him. In that case the Summary Jurisdiction Acts supply a sufficient remedy without the intervention of the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State does not consider the facts suggested in the hon. Baronet's Question to be such as to call for any action on his part.