ENGLAND UNDER STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 145, 21 June 1926, Page 9

ENGLAND UNDER STRIKE.

.A COLONIAL'S EXPERIENCES. ' I DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL. CALMNESS AND GOOD HUMOUR. (By PILGRIM.; i When the great strike began 1 was j j in a lovely but sparsely populated • ! Welsh Valley, four miles from the j'nearest village. The first intimation we bad that the strike had begun was j lhat no trains came up the branch line. r ! The second ivas that there were no j metropolitan newspapers at the village. „ But for the Government's broadcasted s ! wireless bulletins, which were received in . j the village, we should have been withr I out news of the struggle in the great - J centres. The market town ten mile? away was in a similar position. There 1 were no daily newspapers from the 1 i cities, and the public depended for its 3 1 news on wireless reports posted four ) ■ times a day. The average New Zea- , J lander probably knew much more about c the strike from day to day than did the Englishman, i In the valley there were no other - signs of the strike. Day succeeded : I day in peaceful beauty. There was not . ; a whisper of disturbance. Nor did we > pee an}' when we visited the market • town, which, as a railway centre of gome » importance, contained many strikers. - ; Ten miles further away, we were told, - there had been trouble with free-labour . buses, but when, a few days later, we ' motored through this town on the way " ; to Chester, we saw no excitement. j That drive of .forty miles each way was : ' instructive. But for the fact that we I j saw no trains running and that the ' I winding machinery of the collieries was 5 ' idle, we would not have known that ' ! there was a strike, and that England ' was parsing through one of the grave&t " ' crises in her history. The mining vil- ' : lap-es through which we passed were ' ! perfectly quiet. We noticed no meetings • J or demonstrations of any kind. Chester ; itself seemed full, and we went about r the business of sight-seeing as if every--3 thins was normal. While we were there J J we heard cheering in the distance, and 1 j we were told there had been an attack ' on a vehicle driven by volunteers. This • incident, which does not seem to have £ been serious, was the only one of the » kind that came within onr experience. By Slow Train. Determined to return to. London, we I'set out next morning (Saturday) on the -1 adventure of getting there by a train i that was scheduled to go as far as WolI verhampton, the authorities being hope--1 ful that we would reach Paddington that night. The previous week we had bowled ur> to this Welsh border junction [ ! by one of the best trains in England, . i doing the 170 miles in under four hours. Now we did not know how long we would take, and to uncertainty was added a epice of" Boarding the first of two trains, we wandered down to Shrews- ' bury, and had twenty minutes for a hur- '! ried* lunch in that historic town. Since ' the train was stopping everywhere, it ! was obvious that the journey would be ' i long. Those who travelled by the second train were not so fortunate ac 1 regards refreshments. We weut oh to I Wolverhampton, still slowly, and t punt 1' an hour and a half standing :.•■ that J station. It was cold, and tlnter was 'nothing to eat or drink, but !••■•■'■ "ifttcly 1 ] we had provided ourselves -.villi food > jbefore setting out, and our carriHgi , mates !; were glad of some of it. Everybody was « cheerful. Hard things were r-aid about ; the strike, but there was not a grumble I against the railway company. It was , doing its best for us, and we were gratej fnl. The most cheerful soul was a woman whose destination was in Kent, twenty miles beyond London. She did not know how she was going to get from Paddington to Kent that night, with London's - transport system dislocated, but she was confident she would. I should like to know how she got on. An Interlude. We went on towards Birmingham through terrible looking industrial areas, where the hideous landscape was blighted with the further curse of unceri tainty. As far as the eye could see were i black factories. We stopped at every , station to put out milk cana and take up i or put down an occasional passengel. . But for our train the railway world of this great industrial country wa3 deaa. Everybody, however, remained cheerful. i At Birmingham there was a change for j the worse; we previously had carriage I room, but we were now put into a full compartment without a corridor. At half-past six we were approaching Warj j wick, and, seeing that we were not 1 I pressed for time and there was no knows ing what time the train would reach . Paddington—it had taken seven hours ■ to do about half the distance —we de--3 cided to drop off there and see the place, i and possibly Stratford. It was a wise decision, for we learned later that the train did not arrive at Paddington until half-past two next morning—l7o miles in 15 hours. Besides, we found a most J comfortable inn, said to be as old a3 Warwick Castle, where we discussed the strike in a delightfuly warm, old-world bar-room, and explained to the surprised landlady that Eigland was always i "Home' , to New Zealanders, and that 7 despite the strike we were enjoying our \ selves immensely. - Was there any way of getting to ; Stratford? we asked. " The strike had ■ laid its hand on the buses. The question • was put to a group round the fire, and ' j a young man in plus fours, -who turned, - I out to be a bank manager (may he be- ■ j come Governor of the Bank of Xew Eng- ' land), said he would be very pleased to - drive us there in the morning and bacK • in the afternoon. He did so, and we ? went to service at Holy Trinity Church, and listened to a sermon on the strike, 1 j and sang "'God Save the King" at the j end (including the verse about knavisu c tricks and politics), and were allowed to - go up to the chancel and see Sbakee--8 peare's grave, and wondered what "he .. i would have said about the aby3mal folly i. i elsewhere, everybody was cheerful and :|if he had been alive. At Stratford, as v I going about business and pleasure in the ■ i ordinary way. The revolution seemed " I to be about as near as Mars. '• j Back in Warwick again, we were in- ! : I formed' that there wae a train to Lon- •', j don in twenty minutes, so we bundled '■ i our things into our bags and ran to the |1! station, only to wait threa-quarters of >.. ! an hour. We did not mind; the [1 . dominating fact was that there was ;' I a train. When it came along it I proved to be a semi-express. Cutting fg out the email stations, it bowled along c merrily to Oxford, attaining-at times a '• speed that seemed equal to that of our ,' own Main Trunk. The country side is looked very beautiful, and our New Zea- [■ land eyes feasted on it. At Oxford there ''jwas tea and something to eatj most

welcome for themeelves and as proof ' that the railway service was improving. Half past nine had been mentioned as the time of our arriving at Paddington. ■ and it was quite a creditable performance to get us there at a-quarter to eleven. All the way, as in the previous day, there was no sign of demonstration or disturbance. No one threw a stone at us, or even hooted our progress. Amateur Porters. At Paddington the train was greeted with cheers, and we stepped out among an army of amateur porters. A young ma:: seized our luggage and in cultured j tones instructed us where to go. The standing of many of these helpers may , be judged from the fact that when we pointed to a line of motor cars and asked if any of them could be hired, the reply was, "I'm afraid those belong to the porters.'" There remained the question of a tip. I was sure my porter would not take one, but I felt bound ' v offer it. "Excuse mc asking you an embarrassing question," I said in my most winning tones, "but will you accept J a tip?" '"No, thank you," he replied v.ith a sweet smile, "'that's quite all right." I thanked him heartily and I withdrew. Quiet London. The next morning (Monday) I walked from Chelsea to Trafalgar Square by way of Buckingham Palace. To a foreigner the condition of the streets must have been astounding,. Save that traffic was less than usual, that there as a uniformed policeman and a "special" oeside the volunteer driver on every bus, that there were bluejackets behind the railings at the Chelsea Barracks, and that the guard at the Palace was in khaki and looked rt -dy for emergencies, there were no signs of crisis. The streets were crowded, and in most respects the life of London went on in the same old goodhumoured way. The official organ of the T.U.C. was being sold alongside the "British Gazette."' Xo one appeared to be excited. It is true that by this time the counter-organisation was well established, and it is also true that there had been disturbances in various parts of the country. I am stating what I actually saw, and I may add that the number of acts of violence bore a very small proportion indeed to the size of the struggle. There was a good deal of intimidation in the building trade; for example, members went out against their will, and in distant parts, beyond the reach of the unions, work proceeded. There is reason to believe that fear played a considerable part in the strike of the taxi men. I heard of a case of a man and his car being thrown into the river (or perhaps it was only a threat). It is not unreasonable to iuppose that these tactics had an effect. It was, however, considering the magnitude of the struggle and the intensely grave issues involved, an amazingly bloodless war. *" " Great National Assets. The country carried on quietly and effectively until the strike broke, and the breaking was done in the same characteristic way. My intimation of peace was obtained from a moving electric sign on top of one of the great London shops. A fellow passenger on top of a bus drew my attention to it, and we agreed that it was good news, but we neither cheered nor shook hands. Nor did anyone else that I saw or heard. The shouting of the newsboys selling diminutive newspapers and bulletins was the only additional noise. England said, "Thank God" to itself and went on working. Never have'those priceless national qualities of imperturbability, patience and good humour been more shiningly displayed than in this strike. Foreigners looked on in mingled amazement and admiration. It was not only that the Constitution was upheld; it was that this victory was won without bloodshed and with aft extraordinarily small expenditure of either force or ill-feeling. If I were asked to name what I considered the most significant incident of the whole struggle, it would be this — that in a southern town a team of strikers played a team from the police at football, and the wife of the local Chief Constable kftked off. For those with eyes to read, there is a world of meaning in that game. (The strikers, by the way, won.) Moscow may well aek itself whether a revolution will ever be possible in a nation so hopelessly friendly in its class relations. Moscow, no doubt, has by thin time given up the j 1 English as quite mad. i The Government. ; It would be a mistake for New Zealanders to think that every act of the ' Government before and during the strike, ; has been approved by the majority, i [ There was an overwhelming majority I for the Government in its stand against the general strike, but its handling of ' the crisis before the strike began, and its conduct of the official organ the ' "British Gazette," have been criticised ' by its supporters. If, as is reported, 1 Mr. Churchill edited the "Gazette," the ' choice was not a wise one. The worst ' mistake the ""Gazette" made was in not ♦ printing the appeal of the churches ! (headed by the Archbishop of Canter- ; Bury) for peace. Broadcasting of this 1 was also refused, but whoever was re--1 sponsible for this bowed to opinion and ; sent the statement out later. Journal- ' ists who are accustomed to producing 1 * newspapers under difficulties will make ' allowances, but the omission was unforl tunate. 5 Mr. Baldwin is still trusted by both sides. It may be that he could have done better before the general strike was declared, but his attitude during > and after the struggle has been admir--1 able. In his utterances there have been i no signs of exultation or ill-feeling. 1 With malice towards none and charity i. towards all, he is earnestly and patiently - setting about the task of binding up the ■ nation's wounds. 'Morally, Mr. Bald- > win is a great leader.