THE UNDECIDED BATTLE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1926, Page 4

THE UNDECIDED BATTLE

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE CRISIS.

By Sidney Low

I was out of England during the late general strike, and like most Britons abroad, I surveyed it from afar with anxiety and distress. Wo thought a heavy' calamity had fallen upon our nation. That was also the opinion of intelligent foreign observers. Of these some were kindly and sympathetic, others disposed to exult, hut all agreed that we had sustained a' great and grievous affliction. I returned to find Great Britain in an orgy of self-satisfaction. All my friends were cheerful. So far from sorrowing over the strike, they were rather proud of it. They were convinced that we had covered ourselves with honour and won another triumph for Britain and the British spirit. “No other country could have done it,” though, as a. matter of fact, other countries—Franco, for instance, and Sweden—have faced and beaten a general strike. But how calm we were, how resolute, how restrained! How promptly the Government’s call for aid was answered, and how capable and energetic the volunteer helpers proved! What good temper and good feeling prevailed everywhere, even among, the strikers! A moral victory 1 God’s in IJ.is Heaven; all’s veil with the Brittannic world. I wish I could think all this complacency justified. I am glad, of course that the English people kept their heads under a sudden strain, as they usually do. I echo the commendation rightly bestowed on the undergraduates, the motor-car owners, the amateur omnibus-conductors ar.d railway porters, and all the other men and women, chiefly of the educated and propertied classes, who rose to the emergency ;and T rejoice that the strikers behaved quietly, and did not often come into collision with the police. All this T should have expected, and as far as it gees it is satisfactory. A SERIOUS SYMPTOM.

What is not satisfactory is that the strike happened. The other day there was a terrible railway accident in the United Staley. It gave occasion for some superb acts of heroism and courage by the passengers and train-hands, and of these the Americans can ho legitimately proud. But I suppose they all think it would he much better if there had been no accident. We can praise our Government "for maintaining the national services, and the large section of the community which assisted them ; hut we should have even more cause for rejoicing if these efforts had not been required. The strike was a symptom of serious disorder in the body politic, which has not been cured, though the grave, and oven fatal, consequences it threatened were 'temporarily averted.

I say temporarily, for if the malady persists a dangerous crisis must recur. What the outbreak showed was that n very large number of workers in the most important trades can bo allured or coerced into a conspiracy against the nation at the bidding of small disaffected groups. Strangely enough I find this regarded by many persons as a comforting and consoling reflection. All my friends assure me that the- strikers did not really want to strike. Many only did so out of ‘loyalty” to their leaders. Ts not Hint rather touching? Possibly. But- is it not rather dangerous for these excellent fellows to he so loyal to their labour clubs .that they can at a moment's notice, and without grievance or cause of complaint, become disloyal to the State, the Constitution, the community as a whole? If this “loyalty” may urge them to one form of insurrection or civil war have we any security that it will not impel .them to another? AFRAID.

T.nynlty. however, was not, it seems, the dominating motive. Tlio majority of the strikers, one is told; struck because they were afraid not to strike. They were intimidated into reluctant compliance with the orders of the Communis! wire-pullers who run the trade union machinery. These men would even admit, when discreetly questioned, that they ‘Mind to” come out less worse things should befall them, f No doubt this explanation is correct. Hot what does it show? Plainly that British workers are coerced, dragooned into submission to a violent miuoritv of their own class. They “have to” strike, against their own wishes, because if they refuse they will he badgered, bullied, boycotted, and perhaps assaulted. For the same reason they ‘‘have to” vote for the revolutionary demagogues who manage the unions and rig the ballots. They may not like to trust these persons, but they obey their orders. Disobedience would expose them to discomfort, and even danger; life would he made, ir.toler- :

able for them and their wives and families. Numerically the Communists are a handful; hut a resolute, disciplined, unscrupulous handful, thoroughly bent on their purpose, can forge their will upon an incoherent multitude. Four determined ruffians can hold up a crowded express train; a dozen trained policemen can master a large mob; a few thousand organised terrorists subjugated a mighty empire. In numerous mining villages at this moment the strike is maintained and prolonged by Fear. Aren are afraid to set themselves against the Terror, which is quite effective, though it does not—at present;—work with knife, bomb, and bullet. These may come later. AN UNLEARNED LESSON.

Nothing succeeds like success. Mostpeople want to ho on the stronger side. To a great many members of the British “nroletariat” it must look as if the stronger side wore that, of the Communist agitators. For these people defy the Government and the .law with impunity; they compel the official Socialist politicians to follow their lead, protesting hut impotent; they enjoy legal privileges denied to the capitalists and the hourgeoiso; they are able to finance their projects and support the hordes they have thrown into idleness out of the taxes and the rates. To- multitudes who labour, or have ceased from labour, it begins to look as if the Extremists were winning all along the line so that it is more profitable, as well as safer, to he with them than against them.

That is the temper which loads to revolution, unless revolution is shortcircuited bv Dictatorship. In this country we want neither tlio one alternative nor the other. But the way to avoid both is for,Government and all the other elements of ordered societv to make it unmistakably clear that thev are the stronger side; and that it is not safe, and not profitable, to serve and obey the wreckers. That demonstration is still incomplete; it has not been given in an absolutely convincing form. The lesson, despite our recent good-natured and weljl-conducted general strike fiasco, remains to be learnt. I wonder if and when it is going to be taught.