15 AUGUST 1925, Page 2

It may be, and we devoutly hope will be, that

the dis- putants will have the good sense to avoid deciding such a question by a violent trial of strength. But if the struggle has to come Mr. Baldwin will be on infinitely better ground nine months hence than he would have been now. People of peace and sense will then say : " Everything that was humanly possible has been done to placate the unions. They prefer to throw over the only practical proposals for continuing the work of the mines and to inflict ghastly misery and loss upon the country by declaring war and holding up supplies." In such circumstances no one but a revolutionary will fail to be on the side of Mr. Baldwin, of whom it will then be justly said that he worked for peace so long as the dimmest ray of hope existed.

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