this journal the description of the trouble which was ended yesterday in the Postal Service as a strike, it being complained that a go-slow movement does not amount to such a thing. That argument might be true in most public and commercial activities, but when it comes to utilities its nature can only Judged by effects, andthe facts are that by reason of the action of postal workers in the Head OMice, Shanghai, the distribution of mails was ' reduced almost to vanishing point. ANI the public is concerned with is not the nature of the movement in the Head Post Office, but with the effects upon Itself, and, whether the movement Is tobe called a strike on not, the effects were that to all intents and purposes Shanghai was cut off from communication with the outer world by mail. The situation from the point of view of the public was undoubtedly serious and a prolongation of the present dispute and behaviour of the workers must ultimately have resulted in compliclffons in the industrial and commercial communities which even now will take not only time but also expense to adjust. It should be pointed out that many features of the dispute were similar to those of the strike of 1992, which it has to be admitted was on @ much larger scale and involve ed other post offices besides that of Shanghai. The issues raised then were to a very large extent those which were involved this week, and the cause of. the trouble seems to be that the move= ment towards the settlement of those issues which was commenced 1992 does not appear to have made that progress calculated to satisfy the desires of those who began the original strike.
Tt will be remembered that the postal strike of 1932, involving no fewer than 3500 employees, broke out on May 22, when the mact ery of Shanghai's mails was thrown completely out of gear. There was no disturbance, but there was a com plete cessation of postal service to Shanghai. Two days later, owing to the swift action taken' by the municipal authorities to cope with the situation, an organized staff for a temporary post office was brought together, and on May 24 this was already in full working order. It could not, of course, deal with incoming mails, because the ship ping companies were not empowered to hand the mail bags over to anybody except members of the Postal Union, though it was anticipated that had marlers gone fon much longer than they did, some attempt would have been made to secure the consent of the Chinese Government to the receipt by this temporary organization of incoming foreign mails fo the purpose of distribution. The arrangement under which this emergency post office operated was that Letters destined for delivery in China and in foreign countries were accepted on a franking system, the mail sorted and despatehed to Hongkong, where tt was stamped and forwarded to the appropriate addressees. The system did not have a long time in which to operate, for on May 27. three days after its commencement. and after the strikers' demands had been accepted in principle. the whole of the employees returned to work and the emergency postal service ceased to operate. The whole incident proved the ability of the authorities of Shangha! to handle such an emergency as was jereated by the strike of that year Jand affords every justification for believing that not only would the institution of such a system be of great benefit in the future, ut it might relieve the community of at least some of the disadvantages accruing from other dispute such as the one now Tt will be noticed that there is no intention on the part of this journal to seek to allocate any blame for the recent unfortunate state of affairs. It is conceivable that the proper adjustment of all the issues raised in 1932, the de~ mands tu connection with which were accepted in principle, must of necessity have taken some consider-fable time to work out, and that such questions as the amalgamation of the Post OMice Savings Bank with the General Post Office one of the items with regard to which it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that a period of a little over two years is not too long in arriving at a final settlement. Be that as it may, the only point with which the general public of Shanghai is concerned was this second threat of disruption in lig dially business. Sufficient has already been shown in the columns lof this paper to indicate that large establishments have already suffered very considerable in~ Jconvenience. Naturally it is to be assumed that smaller undertakings suffered at least _proportion ately and, when all is said and done, the commerce of this very large' port underwent a brief blockade by the postal workers who sought thereby to impose their will upon the Chinese Government. In the circumstances, with the interests of Shanghai" being bandied backwards and forwards between the postal workers and the higher authorities as if it were some shuttlecock, a time must come when the innocent victims of other people's mistakes should take action lo minimize as for as possible the inconveniences and losses to which they were being subjected. Tt might have been just as dificult in 1936 as it apparently would have been in 1932 to obtain delivery of the incoming mails, and to that extent it is likely ' that Shanghai must suffer when such Incidents arise. The institution an emergency post office, being justified by precedent, seems to be the best possible means of carrying jon some sort of attenuated service in the interests of the community. Such a post office need
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.