§ Sir R. Glynasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has any statement to make in regard to the strike of workers employed on the Nigerian Railway; and how far this stoppage has affected the traffic of groundnuts to the coast.
Mr. Creech JonesA strike of railway station staff began without warning on 17th July. As the terms of service of station staff were at the time subject to a Government enquiry, the Nigerian, Government announced that further consideration would not be given to the questions at issue until work was fully resumed. The strikers were warned that they had broken their contracts of service and were advised in their own interests to return to work immediately. Subsequently a meeting was held between representatives of the Government and of all the Railway Unions, in consequence of which all the unions ordered an immediate resumption of full work. There has been a general response to this order. No accurate estimate can yet be given of the drop in groundnut railings, but the total figure for the month is expected to fall below 30,000 tons as against a previous estimate of 36,000 tons.