Category: 100 Years Ago

25 MAY 1926

There has been no fresh development in the coal situation. The owners and miners, it is understood, are considering Mr Baldwin’s letter. In Labour circles it is being described as an ultimatum.

Mr J. R. Clynes, in his presidential address at a Congress at Bournemouth of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, declared that whatever censure might fall upon Trade Unions for declaring a national strike the responsibility of the Government for being the primary cause of it would in due time fall upon millions of working men.

A deadlock has occurred in the disarmament discussions at Geneva.

At the Conference of the British Legion a resolution was moved protesting against the attitude of headquarters during the general strike in calling upon all ex-servicemen to offer their services to preserve law and order. This was lost amid cheers.

It is reported that an emissary has arrived at Fez, bringing with him a letter from Abdel Krim for M. Steeg, the Resident-General, and that both have had a long talk on the situation in Morocco. The French Cabinet will consider the matter to-day.

Addressing a patriotic demonstration at Genoa, Signor Mussolini said the people of Italy were thirsting to be obedient, thirsting for discipline, eager to be governed. The Fascisti State would survive. It had buried the Liberal Democratic State, with its collective lack of responsibility—that State of Parliaments which talked until people were sick with boredom.

In the Egyptian elections Zaghlul Pasha has secured a commanding lead, and the Government party has been wiped out.

The death has taken place of Sir John Williams, the doctor who attended the birth of the Prince of Wales.

24 MAY 1926

Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, has replied to the Mining Association of Great Britain and to the Miners’ Federation. He regrets that the mineowners do not recognise that it was impossible for any Government to have stood aside in matters where the national well-being is so vitally affected. Interference in the industry was due entirely to the industry’s incapacity to settle its disputes for itself. He tells the miners that, so long as they refuse to consider any alteration of wages or hours, no useful purpose would be served by his meeting them. The Government are no longer bound by the terms of an offer which has been rejected. It will be impossible for the Government to hold open beyond the end of the present month the offer of any further subsidy.

In reply to three members of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress, who asked if Sir Herbert Samuel would deny that consultations took place between Mr Baldwin and himself on the terms of the Memorandum of May 12, Sir Herbert Samuel states that no such consultation occurred.

Addressing Welsh miners at Porth, Mr Cook complained that Trade Union leaders endeavoured to bully the miners into acceptance of longer hours or lower wages. He also gave an account of his own part in the discussions before the withdrawal of the general strike order.

Lord Birkenhead, speaking at Oxford, said the provisions of the Trades Disputes Act of 1906 would undoubtedly require and receive examination.

In a letter to engineering Trade Unions the Engineering and Allied Employers’ National Federation state that there is now but one duty for all concerned, and that is by co-operation and reduction in costs to do what they can not only to overcome the effects of the recent dislocation and the resultant serious loss, but also to revive industry, at present so much depressed.

In a message to the Socialist candidate in North Hammersmith by-election, Mr Ramsay MacDonald says the general stoppage from which the country has just emerged was a magnificent and orderly demonstration of passive resistance to degrading conditions for a million mine workers, which, if imposed on the miners, would have appeared elsewhere.

An agreement between Great Britain and the Angora Government on the subject of Mosul is reported to be ready for signature.

23 MAY 1926

Hundreds of thousands of miners sought financial relief as they continued to withhold their labour despite the end of the General Strike.

The death of Sir Edward Pryce-Jones, the former Conservative MP for Montgomery, was announced.

22 MAY 1926

In their reply to the Government’s mining proposals the coalowners urged the need for a return to the eight hour day and for freedom from political interference.

At a joint meeting of railway companies and railway Unions in London arrangements satisfactory to both parties were made for suspension of the guaranteed week. These arrangements, it is stated, will enable the companies to spread out work so as to remove the difficulties which have arisen as to reinstatement of the staff who were recently on strike.

Replying in a speech at Bournemouth to criticism directed against the Trade Union leaders who called off the general strike, Mr J. R. Clynes, M.P., said the whole idea of trying to settle anything by such a method was a delusion; but out of the result they could gather a most profitable experience if the leaders maintained anything like the unity and loyalty of the rank and file.

Mr Philip Snowden writes to the Socialist candidate in the Hammersmith by-election that the great lesson of the recent deplorable industrial stoppage is the need of increased Labour representation in Parliament, so that industrial questions may be settled by peaceful methods and without resort to steps which inflict injury on the country.

21 MAY 1926

At a sitting in London the miners’ delegate conference passed a resolution submitted by the Executive that, while agreeing with the legislative and administrative proposals in Mr Baldwin’s suggested basis for a settlement of the coal dispute, they objected to the proposed wages reduction. A special meeting of the Cabinet was held to consider the situation.

The Chancellor wound up the debate on the Finance Bill in the House of Commons, replying at length to Mr Snowden’s criticisms earlier in the sitting, and dealing with the general strike and the coal deadlock in their effect upon the finance and trade of the country. He emphasised the seriousness of a continuance of the last-named trouble and the futility of further subsidy to the industry. The Bill passed second reading by 324 to 117.

The Secretary for Home Affairs stated in Parliament that during the general strike he stopped £100,000 intended by Russian Trade Unionists as a gift to the British workers; but a payment in aid of the miners, who were engaged in a genuine trade dispute, stood on a different footing.

Attention was drawn in the House of Commons to Major Stemp’s statement at the inquiry into the recent railway accident at St Margaret’s, Edinburgh, reflecting on the humanity of a strike picket in the vicinity.

The Home Secretary, Sir W. Joynson-Hicks, speaking on the general strike and the future, said that no attempt would be made to destroy the legitimate position and influence in the country of Trade Unions. They wished them to continue their beneficent work, but they did not intend that the country should be exposed again to the risks of a lightning universal strike. They would not legislate in a hurry, but would consider carefully what could be done to protect the country and not to injure the legitimate work of the Trade Unions.

20 MAY 1926

It is understood that the Executive of the Miners’ Federation have decided to recommend the delegate conference to-day to endorse the reorganisation proposals in the report of the Royal Commission, but to reject the immediate wage reduction implications in the Government’s proposals and the report of the Commission.

The Secretary for India, in reply to Lord Olivier in the House of Lords, made a statement with regard to the conference agreed upon by the Governments of South Africa and India for the discussion and, if possible, amicable solution of problems connected with the colour bar legislation of the first-named Government.

The House of Commons discussed the Finance Bill on the motion for second reading. Mr William Graham moved the rejection of the Bill. He urged that greater attention should be paid to Income-tax evasion, suggested that £15,000,000 could be saved in three years on armaments by overhead cuts on the three Departments concerned, and that the task of relating finance year by year to financial and industrial conditions might be delegated to a body representative of the House. The debate was adjourned.

Statements said to have been made by Zinoviev, Radek, Trotsky, and other Russian members of the Soviet Government, that the general strike in Britain was political, and an important stage towards the Communist revolution, and that contributions from Russian workmen would enable the lie to be given to the denial of the British Labour leaders that it had a political complexion, formed the subject of questions in the House of Commons.

In reply to questions in Parliament, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs said his attention had been called to the fact that three British subjects had been sentenced to imprisonment on charges of espionage in France. He laid stress on the denial issued by Lord Crewe, on instructions from His Majesty’s Government, when the accused were arrested in December. He had not seen a report of the trial, but he had no reason to suppose that the judgment of the tribunal indicated any doubt of the truth of the statements by His Majesty’s Government.

Their Majesties the King and Queen have found it necessary to cancel their projected visit to Edinburgh.

Publication of the King’s Birthday Honours List is postponed until the 3rd of July.

19 MAY 1926

An official announcement by the three railway Trade Unions states that further trouble has arisen over the failure of the companies to reinstate large numbers of their employees under the terms of settlement.

Further consideration was given by the Executive of the Miners’ Federation to the Prime Minister’s proposals. So that there could be no ambiguity about the terms, and that a clear-cut issue could be placed before the delegates, a further meeting with the Premier was arranged, at which a general discussion in explanation of the Government’s proposal took place.

Mr Frank Hodges, secretary of the Miners’ International, interviewed on the coal situation, said:—“The disaster, for such will be its description for many a long year, arises from the noticeable disposition in recent years to drift away from economic facts.”

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, speaking at Shepherd’s Bush, referred to the general strike, and said that during its meetings he never heard a single member of the Trade Union Congress General Committee whisper an idea, give a piece of advice, or suggest a move or policy that was aimed at a political issue.

The General Council of the Trade Union Congress, urging affiliated Unions and their representatives not to be led into public controversy in relation to the recent strike, states that the Council will take an early opportunity to justify its policy to the authority from which it received its mandate.

Viscount Astor moved in the House of Lords the second reading of the Education (Employment of Children and Young Persons) Bill, which empowers local Education Authorities to make by-laws regulating the employment of children up to the age of 18. Lord Desborough, having given an assurance that the Government meant to deal with this question at the earliest opportunity, and by better and surer methods than that now proposed, Lord Astor withdrew his Bill.

18 MAY 1926

The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated in the House of Commons that the effect of the general strike upon direct taxation would mainly appear in next year’s assessments. He saw no reason at present to propose additional taxation.

The state of the nation’s trade was discussed in the House of Commons on a Board of Trade Vote. Sir Robert Horne gave his views on the question of industrial output and efficiency, and laid weight upon recent testimony to American methods. Replying to criticism of the Safeguarding of Industries policy, the President of the Board of Trade declared that there is not the least likelihood of its reversal by the Government.

The Midwives and Maternity Homes Bill, which has passed the Commons, and which, it was stated, had been taken up as a Government measure, was read a second time in the House of Lords. The Economy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was read a third time and passed, and the Local Authorities (Emergency Provisions) Bill was read a second time.

In the Finance Bill, the text of which was issued, particulars are given of the machinery for the collection of the betting duties, and of the penalties to be imposed in the case of non-compliance with the regulations.

It is officially stated that, in consequence of the recent emergency, all Territorial Army training camps due to assemble on or before 15th June are cancelled.

Mr Winston Churchill was in negotiation in London with M. Péret on the question of France’s war debt to Britain.

Open water at the North Pole was observed by the Amundsen Expedition.

17 MAY 1926

The return to work following the General Strike continues. A settlement of the dockers’ dispute in London has been reached. Provisional arrangements have been made for the resumption of work in the general printing trade, and an agreement has been framed by London newspaper proprietors and the Unions concerned.

The dockers’ strike has been settled.

The Government’s coal proposals have been considered by a miners’ delegate conference. The Conference was adjourned till Thursday, representatives of the miners are in the meantime to ask the Government to explain certain points in the proposals. The Central Committee of Coalowners is to meet again to-day for further consideration of the Government’s plan. A Cardiff message says that miners are opposed to the proposals.

Raoul Péret, French Finance Minister, arrived in London to discuss with the British Government matters relating to the settlement of the French debt.

Marshal Pilsudski has assumed power in Poland, and a new Government has been formed.

Amundsen’s airship, the Norge, has successfully concluded her trans-Polar flight.

Mohammed VI., ex-Sultan of Turkey, has died in exile at San Remo.

The French National Council of the Miners’ Federation have threatened to promote a general strike unless agreement has been reached before the end of the month on their proposals for higher wages.

Lord Lloyd unveiled at Port Tewfik the memorial to the men of the Indian units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force who fell during the war.

16 MAY 1926

The Prime Minister’s proposals for settling the coal dispute were reported to have been well received, but miners were still outside the wider industrial peace and coal rationing was expected to continue.

Railway companies hoped services would improve quickly after the end of the strike, although many railwaymen were said to be dissatisfied with the terms agreed between managers and union representatives.

Marshal Józef Piłsudski’s forces were reported to have secured control after fighting in Warsaw, with the country’s president resigning and a new Polish Government being formed.