TRANSPORT-WORKERS' STRIKE S2 g 



with their employers, and who had stopped work in defiance of existing agreements. 

 Negotiations now broke down altogether, and the leaders of the Transport Workers' 

 Federation declared a " national " strike and tried to call out all its allied members at 

 other ports as well as London. But though some 30,000 men responded altogether at 

 Manchester, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth and Swansea, this appeal for a " national" 

 strike was a thorough failure; the railway unions had had enough fighting the year before 

 and the seamen and firemen, as a body, were not prepared to come out. Scenes of 

 violence were of daily occurrence between unionists and free labourers at. the London 

 docks, and in the East End, where the cessation of employment was causing great dis- 

 tress, it became necessary to cancel the King's intended visit to open the Royal Albert 

 dock on June 17 th; but by June i8th it was clear that the Port of London Authority and 

 the employers, aided by police protection (which Mr. McKenna, the Home Secretary, 

 provided however somewhat grudgingly.) , had the strikers well beaten, having obtained 

 a sufficient supply of labour for the handling of cargo. From this point the strike de- 

 generated into sheer anarchism, under the leadership of Mr. Ben Tillett, the Secretary 

 of the Dockers' Union, whose revolutionary and inflammatory speeches and especially 

 a passionate prayer uttered by him for Lord Devonport's death disgusted not only 

 the public but also the Labour party in Parliament, and embarrassed their attempts to 

 get the Government to intervene. Serious conflicts occurred, in which revolvers were 

 used in self-defence by the free labourers, notably on July 24th and on July 3ist, but 

 by degrees the Strike Committee realised that their efforts were in vain. They recom- 

 mended a return to work on July 27th, but a mass-meeting in Hyde Part next day refused 

 to comply with this advice, and it was not for a week later that all pretence at continuing 

 the strike was abandoned. On July 3ist the lightermen decided to give in, and the riot 

 among the dockers that day was mainly due to their finding that their old places had 

 been filled up and that it no longer rested with them to say whether they were wanted 

 any more or not. On behalf of the employers however and of Lord Devonport, a general 

 assurance had been given that, if the strike were abandoned unconditionally, any out- 

 standing grievances under the old agreements would be inquired into and reinstatement 

 effected as soon as possible for men who had formerly been in regular employment; 

 and, as the Strike Committee and the leaders of the Transport Workers' Federation could 

 hold out no longer, further resistance came to an end. 



The real object of the strike, in so far as it aimed at being a " national " one, was to 

 compel Parliament to legislate, as it had done for the coal-miners. In this case however 

 the Labour politicians and their sympathisers were impotent. The discussions in the 

 House of Commons turned mainly on Unionist criticism of the Home Secretary for the 

 apparent disinclination he showed for using force to preserve order and protect the free 

 labourers. On June i2th, Mr. Austen Chamberlain moved a vote of censure on Mr. 

 McKenna, which was rejected however by 337 to 260. On July ist Mr. O'Grady (Labour 

 M.P. for East Leeds) moved a resolution " that it was expedient that the representatives 

 of the Employers and Working Men's organisations involved in the dispute should meet 

 with a view of arriving at a settlement," and Mr. Asquith (who had now returned to 

 England) left the matter to the House, saying that he himself would not vote on it, as 

 he did not think Government intervention would be justifiable or expedient. Mr. Bonar 

 Law, for the Unionists, having expressed his surprise that in those circumstances Mr. 

 Asquith did not oppose the resolution, moved as an amendment " that this House re- 

 grets the continuance of the strike and the consequent suffering, and approves of the 

 declaration of the Prime Minister that the constitutional and normal attitude of the 

 Government should be one of complete detachment and neutrality, and is of opinion 

 that the intervention of this House in this instance can serve no useful purpose." 

 The amendment was rejected by 260 to 215, and the resolution was carried by 254 to 

 1 88. This was the end however of any Parliamentary- action. The strike was already 

 collapsing, and its only political result was to focus public opinion on the desirability 

 of compulsory arbitration, or at any rate some improved machinery of making 

 agreements, once entered into, binding on both sides. (HUGH CHISHOLM.) 



