The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1926. A GRAVE CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 103, 5 May 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1926. A GRAVE CRISIS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

"~"Wages are not imperilled, but freedom and the Constitution are," were the words used by Mr. Baldwin in regard to the general strike in Britain. He said that this was the closest to civil war that England had been for centuries. That statement, made with a full sense of responsibility, shows the gravity of the challenge thrown down to the nation by a subversive minority. Syndicalism, which lies at the root of the crisis, is the antithesis of representative democracy, and democracy is to-day in real peril from the apostles of direct action. Direct action ia the weapon of minorities. Under a democratic form of Government, a majority has no need of direct action. It is true that menacing' as minorities may be, they do not prevail; they can never prevail if the Government is vigilant and the spirit of the people is sound. But the attempt of direct action to prevail may be almost as ruinous as the achievement, and that is one of the dangers now confronting Britain. The Government has rightly taken the view that its first duty is the protection of the life of the community. Drastic regulations have been issu/ed which empower the Government to commandeer food, forage and fuel. Civilian volunteers are being recruited throughout the country, and troops are being moved to the more likely centres of possible disturbance. Naval movements, [including the arrival of the battleships Kamillies and Barham on the Mersey, are reported. This shows the grave view which the Government takes of the situation. There is a danger, of course, in all movements of troops in connection with industrial disputes, that these movements, if too obtrusive, may provoke the very danger it -is sought to avoid; but Mr. Baldwin may safely be trusted to act with wise caution, and in quietness and confidence to accept the challenge if the disruptive forces of Syndicalism threaten freedom and the Constitution. The merits of the dispute between the coal-owners and the miners are not involved in the challenge of a general strike. It .may, indeed, be admitted that economic conditions have reduced a once-flourishing industry to a desperate plight. Many mines are working at a loss; the wages of some miners are low as compared with those paid in less arduous and more sheltered occupations. The' protest made by the miners against a reduction of wages, or an increase of hours, has undoubtedly evoked sympathy, not only among workers in [ other industries, but among a considerj able section of onlookers. The revelations made in "Coal and Power," representing the work of a committee established under the chairmanship of (Mr. Lloyd George to consider the question of unrest or inefficiency in the coal I fields, showed that in many mining districts the miners' houses and the conditions surrounding them were worse than those of any others workers in the country. Few people would deny that in an occupation so admittedly dangerous and I toilsome as that of mining, the work- ' ers deserve special consideration. Had ,the miners stood alone in a strike ; against any interference with the sevenhour day, or any reduction in wages, they would have had the support of a very large section of the public. But ' the general strike has imported a new jand sinister element into the problem, and not only is the life .of the community threatened, but also the very Constitution on which English liberty depends. It is the challenge of an organised minority to responsible Government and the will of the majority. That challenge has been accepted in a spirit of calm determination, and its defeat is inevitable. Stern measures may be necessary, but it would be.a mistake if the Government did not do everything when the crisis is past to remedy j the admitted defects in the coal industry, and to ensure, as far as possible, industrial peace in the future by removing all just grounds for complaint, while at the same time making it clear that no organised minority can be permitted to impose its will on the comj munity by any form of violence or direct action.- ■