20 JANUARY 1939, Page 6

Someone seems to think that a few lines which I

wrote last week on the tactics employed by a relatively small body called the National Unemployed Workers' Movement implied a lack of sympathy with the unemployed generally. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are un- happily over 1,800,000 unemployed in this country and they bear their hard lot with astonishing and admirable forti- tude. Not one per cent. of them, or anything like it, are engaging in such diversions as chaining themselves to rail- ings or lying down on tramlines. Even if it were clear what such tactics are designed to achieve, which it is not, it is obvious that by leading to constant clashes with the police demonstrations might soon cease to be the harmless affairs they are today. It is surely permissible to point that out without inviting a charge of callousness. * * * *