222 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



A resolution was passed that night declaring the intention 

 of the parents not to send their children to school before 

 justice was done. 



The next morning, in spite of the ringing of the statutory 

 bell, which rang longer and more violently than usual, the 

 whole school marched past the school gates, with the 

 exception of one Burston scholar, the son of a glebe-renting 

 farmer, and three Barnado children. Thus the school forms 

 remained scornfully empty of life. The whole village was 

 in revolt against the powers that be. 



In spite of prosecutions, fines, and victimisations the 

 parents displayed a stubborn loyalty to the teachers. 



A remarkable scene took place at the county town at 

 Diss when eighteen parents were summoned and individually 

 charged and fined half-a-crown for refusing to send their 

 children to the Council School : 



" The proceedings," reported the East Anglian Times, 

 " aroused a great deal of interest in the town and there was a 

 large gathering in the vicinity of the Court Room to watch the 

 arrival of the strikers and their parents. Preceded by a little 

 girl riding a decorated bicycle and headed by a red banner 

 bearing the words, ' We Want Justice ' borne by a couple of 

 lads, the strikers, who numbered about fifty, set out from Burston 

 with their parents shortly after nine o'clock, and marched the 

 three miles to the Court House, which is part of the Corn Hall 

 Buildings in Diss. Many of the children carried miniature 

 Union Jacks whilst most of them had placards on which were 

 inscribed the words, ' We want our old teachers back, and 

 Justice.' Several mothers were in the party with collection 

 boxes, and their appeals for support for the strike met with a 

 fair amount of response." 



The necessary 2 55. to pay the fines was collected on 

 the village green on the following Sunday and the money 

 duly paid. Still the parents held out. In a fortnight's 

 time, instead of eighteen summonses being issued there 

 were thirty-two, and the fine was doubled ! This heavier 

 burden of 8 was collected and paid, and still the parents 

 held out, not for higher wages or for better conditions, not 

 for anything that concerned them materially, but for 

 justice to be done to the teachers. 



