Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: September 28th, 1918.

Unfortunately, for some time past we have heard a great deal too much of strikes and rumours of strikes, and many of the workers appear to be imbued with the same spirit of profiteering that has prevailed in other quarters.

The Saturday Telegraph editorial comment went on: A deplorable feature is that some of the men seem willing to follow their trade union leaders only so long as they can get all they want, but short of that the leaders are thrown over and a strike is at once resorted to. That is not trade unionism; it is anarchy, and it is as unreasoning in its way as Russian Bolshevism.

A case to point is the railway strike, a strike which deliberately threatened the life of the nation and undermined the magnificent work of the men who are fighting for us and for railwaymen on foreign soil. As a matter of fact, the railwaymen, who undoubtedly were very much underpaid before the war, have since benefited as much as any class of wage increases, and up to the present they have had the public behind them. But the refusal to acquiesce in arrangements come to between the Government and the Companies on the one side and their own leaders on the other alienated public sympathy, especially as the strike, comparatively small though it was, involved such grave consequences.

Work in the collieries was held up, other industries seriously affected, and even our soldiers who came home on leave found themselves hung up for indefinite periods at some of the stations and were thus robbed of their all-too-brief holiday with their friends.

Moreover, such strikes put heart into our enemies and so help to prolong the war and all the horrors associated with it. The Government were bound to stand firm; to do otherwise would simply have been to play into the hands of firebrands whose only argument is that of the highwaymen of old, 'Your money or your life!'

• A remarkable occurrence at the Army Service Corps Remount Depot was the subject of a charge at a court martial at Biscot on Thursday. Pte Frank J. Asevedo (who is known in boxing circles) was charged with disobeying an order a lawful command on August 24th, in that he was ordered to parade by Sgt Arber but did not do so. A second alternative charge was that of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline. The next charge was of having disobeyed the order of the troop sergeant to turn into stables. Accused was found guilty, and it was stated that he had been before a court martial in 1917 because he rendered himself unfit for duty by cutting his throat. On the present charges he had been in confinement for 32 days awaiting trial. Sentence will be promulgated later.

• An interesting ceremony takes place tomorrow morning at Biscot. The Brigade Commander will present the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Russian Order of the Fourth Class to Mrs Lucy Hubbard, widow of Cpl George Henry Hubbard (9620, 7th Battalion Northants Regiment). The ceremony takes place on the parade ground of Leagrave Road immediately after church parade at the YMCA Hut. [Cpl Hubbard appears to have had no direct links to Luton.]

• L-Cpl A. Timms (Bert), youngest son of Mr and Mrs Timms, fruiterers, High Town Road, who is now home on 14 days leave, was awarded the Military Medal for devotion to duty during the August advance. A native of Luton, L-Cpl Timms joined the Beds Yeomanry in February 1915 at the age of 18 years, and saw three years active service in France with that unit, but is now attached to the 19th Hussars.

• About 9.10 on Thursday morning a collision occurred at the junction of New Bedford Road and Cromwell Road, Luton, between tramcar No. 6, driven by William Poole, of 44 Chase Street, and a tractor, the property of Thomas Oakley, marine store dealer, of Shaftesbury Road, and driven by Walter Brent, of 2 Windmill Road. Fortunately no personal injury was sustained, but the fronts of both vehicles were badly damaged. [The tram driver, a Mons man wearing a gold wound stripe who had been driving trams for five weeks, was fined £2 at the Borough Police Court on October 19th for driving a tramcar to the danger of passengers. He pleaded not guilty and denied an allegation that he had been speeding.]

• The Remount Depot at Beech Hill broke ground last spring and developed a garden. Their potato patch has yielded a fine crop, averaging 15 tons per acre. One potato weight 2lb 4oz.

• On the Town ground this afternoon, Biscot R.F.A. scored through Turner and Luton through Darby for a half-time score of 1-1. In the second half Mizen put the Camp ahead, but Jones equalised and eventually scored the winning goal. Final score: 3-2 to Luton.