GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES. 219 



These terms, when bruited abroad, gave rise to much 

 heart-burning, for if there is one point of honour amongst 

 farmers it is this : that no one should raise wages without 

 consulting his brother farmers first in the same neighbour- 

 hood. 



Viewed in this light the action of Captain Beck was most 

 ungentlemanly ! On the other hand the men regarded the 

 action as one of long delayed justice, and " The King's Pay 

 and the King's Conditions " became the slogan of all Norfolk 

 labourers. 



As the farmers were slow to follow the King's example 

 trouble soon broke out between the King's tenant farmers 

 and their labourers. The men working at the Babingley 

 and Flitcham farms on the Sandringham estate demanded 

 shorter hours and i6s. a week. About forty men went 

 on strike on the farmers' refusal to entertain the King's 

 conditions, and a hut was erected for the housing of a 

 number of strike-breakers. The strike was quite spontan- 

 eous on the part of the men, but their Executive decided to 

 support them and make a general demand throughout 

 Norfolk for i6s. a week and a Saturday half-holiday. 



The Farmers' Federation assisted the King's tenants by 

 supplying them with a sufficient number of workers for 

 their immediate needs. The moment chosen for the strike 

 was not a good one, the spring sowing being well advanced ; 

 yet, in spite of this, the men won an advance of is. a week ; 

 and, as it was observed afterwards, they would have got their 

 Saturday half-holiday had they held out a little longer. 



During the strike the N.A.L.U. started a weekly journal 

 called The Labourer, but after four issues, it ceased as a 

 weekly paper. It started again as a quarterly in February, 



Though apparently the men were not successful in win- 

 ning all their demands, there appears^to have been a general 

 rise to 155. in many parts of Norfolk, which was the highest 

 cash wage recorded since the days of Arch, 1 but another 



1 It was decided at the annual conference of the N.A.L.U. at King's 

 Lynn on March 14, 1914, to take a ballot of all the members in favour 

 of financing a member of the Union for Parliament. 



