INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. 339 
We discuss this case and its settlement in the chapter dealing with Burma. 
So far as We are aware, no prosecutions have been instituted under those 
provisions of the Trade Disputes Act which relate to public utility services 
or to general strikes. 
Congiliation and Arbitration. 
Although the experience of statutory courts is necessaril y meagre, 
there were many occasions before the passing of the Trade Disputes Act 
on which conciliation or arbitration was undertaken by individuals or by 
specially appointed committees or courts. Individuals (usually officials) 
have intervened in a number of strikes as conciliators or, by request, as 
arbitrators and seldom without success. The first attempts to settle 
disputes by the appointment, of more or less formal bodies were made in 
Madras in 1919 and 1920, when on four separate occasions courts of 
enquiry were appointed consisting of an official chairman and one member 
chosen by each party. The courts seem to have had a fair measure of 
success, but no such court was appointed in Madras after 1920. Courts or 
committees of a similar character were instrumental in terminating two 
strikes in Burma and two in Bengal in 1920 and 1921. In 1924 and again 
n 1928, committees of enquiry, consisting in each case of two independ- 
ent persons with a High Court Judge as chairman, were appointed in 
Bombay to report on questions arising out of the general strikes in Bom- 
bay cotton mills. The report of the 1924 committee had an important 
influence in bringing the strike to a conclusion. The 1928 strike wag 
brought to an end with the appointment of the committee (known as the 
Fawcett Committee) “ for the permanent settlement of the dispute ”. 
Unfortunately this wider end was not achieved. The committee, on its 
part, furnished a comprehensive review of working conditions in the Bom- 
bay mills and made a number of valuable proposals for their future regu- 
lation. These, however, were not carried out owing to a breakdown of 
negotiations between the parties. The subsequent arrest of leaders of the 
Girni Kamgar Union deprived the workers of these representatives, and 
the leaders of the older unions were unable to regain the confidence of the 
men. So that, although the millowners’ association have instructed their 
members to adopt the recommendations relating to standard rules, the 
more interesting suggestions relating to standardisation and the promo- 
tion of constant contact between the representatives of capital and labour 
have not materialised. 
Gulf Between Employers and Emploved. , 
In the remaining part of the chapter we set down the conclusions 
to which we have been led by our review of past experience and our 
examination of the present position. It is a platitude that the prevention 
of industrial disputes is better than their cure, but there has been a 
sendency to overlook some of jts implications. Public opinion naturally 
“oncentrates on the later stages of a dispute and especially on that final 
stage, the strike or lock-out. The prevalence of strikes affords an 
indication of the extent of unrest, but strikes are merely the symptom 
most evident to the public of underlying discontent. The attempt to 
leal with unrest must begin rather with the creation of an atmosphere 
9