§ CAPTAIN DONELANOn behalf of the hon. Member for Cork County, West, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade, is he aware that sixty miles of the Cork, Bandon, and South Coast, Railway line are at present without competent men to keep it in proper repair; and whether, in view of the great danger to life, and also the great public inconvenience resulting from the strike on the Cork, Bandon, and South Coast Railway, he will intervene with a view to a speedy settlement of the dispute between the said railway company and the men on strike?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEI have no information which enables me to say that the first paragraph of the hon. Member's Question contains an accurate statement of the facts. With regard to the second para, 463 graph, so far as can be judged from newspaper reports, the dispute arises out of a question of breach of discipline, and is not of a kind in which intervention by the Board, of its own initiative, would be likely to lead to any useful result.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is aware that the men have throughout been willing to leave this case to arbitration? Cannot he see his way to recommend the directors to take that course?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEI am not aware of the fact; but even if it was so, I do not think it would be part of the duty of the Board of Trade to intervene.