from a Northern
Correspondent. Last week in Liverpool 600 dockers came out on strike, saying that the handling of asbestos was injurious to health. They returned to work this morning, but the ship -carrying the cargo was left untouched. The port medical officer has said that there is no danger from the asbestos, provided the men wore goggles, masks and other protective clothing, and had the necessary washing facilities. The dockers' attitude to this statement is that it confirms the fears they had expressed. The next move in the dispute may come tomorrow if the port authorities try to direct other dockers to unload the cargo. In a written reply to a Labour M.P, the Minister of Labour, Mr. Ray Gunter, said the chances of a docker getting one of the two kinds of cancer associated with asbestos was remote, : "This is true even with the precautions taken in the past," he told Mrs. Joyce Butler, M.P. for Wood Green. "Current evidence" pointed to blue asbestos as being most commonly associated with mesothelioma, a kind of cancer affecting the covering of the lungs.