Sir George Askwith, Chief Industrial Commissioner, who is enquiring into the dispute in Wolverton on behalf of the Government, sent a telegram to the union officials conducting the strike and also the firm of Messrs McCorquodale, advising that work should be resumed at once. The union officials sent a telegram in reply stating that the Wolverton workers were not on strike, but locked out. Apart from war bonus they demanded recognition of their union and providing this recognition was agreed to and settlement be retrospective to that day, Saturday, they would recommend the girls to restart work.

During the first week of the strike over 500 girls were enrolled as members of the National Union of Paper Trades. On Saturday last they received their first strike allowance of 9/- (45p) whilst a number of girls who had been left fatherless were given 2/6d extra (12½p).

A mass demonstration was held in Wolverton on Saturday afternoon in which almost every unit of trade unionism in the district was represented in support of the girls. A parade was made round the streets of the town, the procession being headed by the Wolverton Town Band and the Bradwell United Band. Banners of local Trade Unions were unfurled and in the ranks of the procession were practically all of the newly enrolled members of the Paperworkers’ Union, red ribbons flowing from their coats and hats, who were followed by a body of workmen from Wolverton Railway Carriage Works. The streets on the routes were lined with spectators. A meeting was afterwards held near the Old Market Place where a dense crowd numbering between 2 and 5 thousand gathered. The Organising Secretary of the Paperworkers’ Union, Mrs. Hayes, gave a vigorous address stating that the girls of the town had made the finest stand it had ever been her experience to see. What the Wolverton girls have done ought to be an example to the workers in every village and town in the country. This dispute was not the fault of the girls. They were whistled out of the factory by the hooter. They had to go whether they wanted to or not. They did not want the struggle to last long and she was sure that with the support of the workers behind them it would not last long. She appealed to the men to help the girls. The Union would look after them, it would see that none go short, that no widowed mother or invalided father would suffer. She hoped that as a result of the demonstration, not a single worker would go on Monday to work inside the factory.