On Thursday, December 9th, Lord Birkenhead, acting for the Home
Secretary, received a deputation from the Labour Party, the Trades Union Congress and the Miners' Federation, who requested an amnesty for the prisoners convicted under the Emergency Powers Act. Lord Birkenhead's reply to the deputation was a master- piece of its kind.. It left nothing to be said by way of retort. It was suave, conciliatory, and even generous, but it was. impregnable in .its assertion of an unwavering principle. That principle was that violence is violence and crime is crime and that industrial politics must never be pleaded as an extenuation of offences against personal safety and rights. How could any Government generously amnesty men who had tried to throw off the line a train loaded with passengers, without being ungenerous to the whole community which it was the duty of the Government to protect ?
Previous page
