Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - British Railways and the War (1917).djvu/22

 railway workers: "His Majesty greatly admires that spirit of patriotism which arouses in them (the skilled workmen) the desire to enlist and fight at the front, but His Majesty wishes to remind them that by work that they alone can most successfully carry out they are assisting in the prosecution of the war equally with their comrades serving by land or sea."

The Railway Executive Committee, which now was the main body for making financial arrangements, announced that the railway companies had arranged to supplement the Army pay and allowances of Army Reservists and Territorials in the railway service who joined the Colours in such a manner that the families would be maintained in circumstances which should avoid hardships, during the absence of the breadwinner of the family. Certain privileges, such as the supply of cheap coal, would be continued. Occupants of the companies' houses would not be disturbed, and when the men returned positions would be found for them on the railways equal to those they formerly occupied. The general plan adopted was to make a grant to augment the income of the wife and family to at least four-fifths of the man's standard wage.

At the time of the outbreak of war the railway companies and the men's unions—the National Union of Railwaymen and the Associated Society