The Press Tuesday, May 4, 1926. The Crisis in Britain.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18682, 4 May 1926, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, May 4, 1926. The Crisis in Britain.

Though the news from the Homeland to-day is still indefinite and confused, that is largely because we are nearly twelve honrs ahead by the clock. The strike will still not have begun while this issue of " The Press " is being read, and will not have gathered any force for two or three days; and as long as the country is not suffering the news is likely to be more voluminous than decisive. The vital question, if we may assume that there is no longer any hope of a settlement, is whether the strike will be confined to the mines. The calling of a general strike has not always in the past produced one, and there are signs already of a conflict in the ranks of the Unionists which may spread. The "Daily Mail" incident, though it is pure Bolshevism, ■will possibly amuse the public more than it will alarm them, but it is at least as significant that some groups of employees voted for carrying on as that the others refused to work. An attempt to gag the Press is plain political brigandage, and since it would be fiercely resented if attempted on any considerable scale, we need not anticipate that there will be many other such incidents, or that the newspapers will be submitted to an industrial censorship. They may of course cease being printed. Actually nothing could have been better for the owners or worse for the miners than that this folly should have been committed. It had the immediate effect of stiffening the Government, and will in the long rim be a far more effective appeal to the public to rally to the cause of law and order than anything the "Mail" could have said if it had not been inter- j fered with. It is quite certain also -that what the "Mail" said was the truth. A general strike is not an industrial dispute, but a revolutionary movement intended to put forcible constraint on the Government. Whether this force is applied directly or indirectly it is a challenge to the GovernI ment which must be met, and Mr Baldwin has taken the only possible course by breaking off negotiations until the Union leaders unconditionally call off the general strike. It rests therefore with the General Council of the Trades Union Congress to say .whether there is to be peace or war.