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.