§ Mr. WILLIAM ABRAHAM (Dublin, Harbour)I desire to ask the President of the Board of Trade a question on which I have given private notice: Whether his attention has been called to the fact that at Easter time the labourers in the employment of the Railway Companies, having their principal termini in Dublin, will be locked out for four days and will consequently receive no wages for those days; whether when compulsory holidays occur, the same practice prevails in England and Scotland of depriving the workers of their wages; and whether he will at once communicate with the Irish Railway Compaines, having their principal termini in Dublin, with a view to securing for the workers in question payment of their wages for the days during which they are compelled to cease working?
§ Mr. J. H. THOMASMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is aware the same difficulties and hardships experienced in Dublin by 1,400 railway men are experienced in England by thousands of railway men who are locked out for a week?
§ Mr. LANSBURYIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the same condition prevails not merely for thousands of railway workmen, but for millions of workers throughout the country, and that this question of enforced holidays really means enforced semi-starvation for the women and children of millions of workers in the country, and that, while we shall be going away for a well-earned holiday and those on the Treasury Bench will not have their wages stopped, and I expect Members of the House will not have their wages stopped, the workers and the people who find the money for our holidays will receive no wages for these enforced holidays?
Mr. BUXTONI have received private notice of this question from my hon. Friend, the hon. Member for North Dublin. The matter has not previously been brought to my attention and I am afraid therefore I am unable to answer the question, but in any case the matter does not seem to be one in which the Board of Trade have any power to intervene.