NEAR TO CIVIL WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 105, 4 May 1926, Page 8

NEAR TO CIVIL WAR

MR. BALDWINS STATEMENT

"WAGES NOT IMPERILLETJ"-

DISCUSSION IN HOUSE OP

COMMONS,

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) (Australian-New Zealand Cable Assn.)

(Received 4th May, £ p.m.) LONDON, 3rd May.

In the House of Commons, Mr. Baldwin said that though the leaders had not realised it when they decided on a general strike, it would come the closest to civil war that England had been for centuries. Wages were not imperilled, but the freedom of the Constitution. Everything for which he had worked for two years had been dashed to pieces, but it does not remove the faith that courage shall regather the pieces and make a fresh start. Mr. Winston Churchill, in a frank speech, said that no Parliament was worthy of the name if it could abdicate to such dictation. If the Government was overthrown, some other force would arise to carry on the nation's struggle unflinchingly and resolutely to the end. Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald (Leader of the Labour Party): "Then is this is the end?" Mr. Churchill, continuing, intimated that the withdrawal of the strike notice must precede the resumption of negotiations. Mr. J. H. Thomas (Labour) pressed the simultaneous withdrawal of the lock-out. Mr. Churchill said he could not answer that immediately, but it was significant that Mr. Baldwin and other Mm» isters immediately left the Chamber.