Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/75

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LABOUR IN MADRAS
49


49 Mr. Wadia to implicitly obey the orders of the Mill authorities, if no satisfactory settlement of the dispute between the employers and employees could be arrived at, the blame would rest on the Mill authorities and not on Mr.Wadia or the employees. Mr. Bhavanandam Pillay had a talk with Sir Clement Simpson but the latter would not agree to let the men in but said that if the men desired, they might get in at 12-30 P. M., for half day work. The men held a meeting ontside and they were advised to go to the Mills at 12-30 P. M., and get in if admitted by the Mill Manager. The gates are fifteen feet long but one gate is completely shut and the other gate is kept half open as the men enter it. Commenting on the Lock-out in its issue of 31st October, “ New India" had the following in its editorial columns. WHERE IS THIS TO END? We elsewhere publish a report of the occurrences at the gates of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills. Though the men were ready at the gates prior to 6 A. M.,-many of them had to come from long distances drenched in the rain--they could not all get in because of the narrowness of the entrance, and those who remained behind were kept out. Whose fault is it that the gate is too narrow for the men to enter in time? The trouble will be more serious in the noon, because the people who could not enier this morning, in the course of half an hour, have to go out, take their food and enter again within the same period. Is that feat humanly possible ? And how are the men expected to do this superhuman feat? The Deputy Commissioner of Police was on the scene, and was thus an eye wit