MR. ASQITITH AND THE COAL-RIOTS. T HE attitude taken by Mr.
Asquith, in regard to the riots among the miners, should serve as an example to his colleagues, both in the matter of statesmanship and of personal policy. He has shown them here, as he showed them in regard to the dynamiters, how very much better it pays to be firm and straightforward in the work of governing, than to be afraid of doing the right thing because it will make "such a nasty row in the House," or "look so bad," or "be capable of being misunderstood," or whatever may be the phrase in fashion for excusing a feeble act, or one in opposition to a plain duty. When we say this, we do not mean to imply that Mr. Asquith has been firm merely because he thinks it pays best, and from no higher motive. He has been firm because he is a man with grit in him, and because he knows that to be anything else might lead to a terrible catastrophe. Still, the fact remains that firmness in administration is the best policy, and that Mr. Asquith, the extreme Radical, has given his colleagues and followers a lesson on those lines. Nothing could have been more thorough and uncom- promising than Mr. Asquith's speech when the conduct of the Home Office in sending soldiers to put down disorder in the mining districts was raised on Wednesday on the Appropriation Bill. He told his hearers that though [like every one else whose opinion is worth taking] he hated using soldiers, and considered that they should never be used where their employment could be avoided, he was, under the circumstances, compelled to employ the military. If the Members who attacked him had held the office which he held, and the state of things which he had described had been brought to their knowledge ; if the local authorities, alarmed for the preservation of the public peace and for the safety of property, had sent them telegram after tele- gram, saying that the local police-forces were insufficient, that they had tried to borrow additional police elsewhere, but unavailingly, and that unless special protection were given to them they could not be responsible for the public peace, what course would those Members have taken in the circumstances ? "These irresponsible critics know as well as I do," continued Mr. Asquith, "and would admit it if they cleared their minds and tongues of cant, that there is no man in this country who would not have acted as I have, and who would not have felt it his bounden duty to supply the local authorities with such a force as in their judgment was necessary to supplement the local forces at their disposal." It was, he further declared, very difficult to understand the position of those who were not able to see that he would have failed in his most elementary duty, if he had not applied all the resources at his disposal when they were reasonably demanded. Incidentally, Mr. Asquith laid down very clearly the true position of the Government and the Home Office in regard to widespread disorder. He pointed out that an English Home Secretary is not a Minister of the Interior—who is, of course, the head not only of a gendarmerie, but of an administrative hierarchy penetrating into every corner of the country—and that the persons primarily responsible for the preservation of order are the local authorities, who enrol, pay, and command the police-force of the district. It has, no doubt, become the custom, in moments of crisis, to consult the Home Secretary, and to appeal to him for his advice ; but the local authorities are quite at liberty to reject that advice. Again, the Home Secretary is usually made the channel through which demands are made for military assistance. In other words, the local autho- rities are entrusted with the work of preserving order, and are responsible for the due performance of that work. Law and order are, however, at the same time a concern of the State ; and, therefore, it is the business of the Home Secretary to see that the local authorities do not neglect their duties. If, as Mr. Asquith said, the local authorities "are found to be guilty of excess or remissness, it is the duty of the Secretary of State to conduct such an inquiry and to institute such proceedings as the nature of the case may require." Further, it is his business to give them help and counsel in difficult cases. The English system thus combines the advantages of the centralised system which prevails in France, with that exaggeration of local autonomy in the matter of preserving order which prevails in America. The duty of preserving law and order is primarily placed upon those who are most directly interested in the work, who have local knowledge, who can best count upon that most useful factor, local sympathy and support, and who, therefore, are most likely to find the easiest way of quelling disorder ; but, at the same time, the State as a whole cannot wash its hands of all responsibility as to what is happening to the Queen's peace in this or that town or county. In case of need, the central Executive has the right and the power to insist that the locality shall do its duty efficiently. The preserva- tion of the peace thus always remains, in the last resort, a matter for the State as a whole. The local authorities are but instruments,—though instruments to whom, till they do wrong, complete control is delegated. This is the true principle of police ; and though it was not specifically asserted by Mr. Asquith, it is involved in the facts he stated. The dangers to be feared from riots would be immensely increased if we were to centralise our system. It is hoped, therefore, that the increase of Home-Office supervision which has followed on the grants to the local authorities in respect of police, will not be allowed to be further extended, and that nothing will be done to weaken the feeling that the counties and great towns are responsible for preserving the peace within their own borders.
Mr. Asquith, we are glad to note, did not spare those Labour Members who, imagining that they would gain a little cheap and easy popularity with the miners by denouncing the Home Secretary, have been accusing him of acting arbitrarily and oppressively. He denounced them in round terms for not daring to appear and reiterate their accusation where it could be answered. He was sorry, he said, not to see in their places those Members who had been going about and denouncing him and circulating "the pitiful and ridiculous fiction" that the Government "deliberately sent out without warning or cause the armed forces of the Crown into districts where industrial dis- putes were going on, in order that they might take the side of the coalowners and crush the miners." 'Where, he asked, were the men who made these statements ? It was well known that this matter would form the subject of discussion. Why were they not in their places? "It is a very easy thing to go about the country speaking to excited audiences when you are safe from refutation and reply ; but it is a very different thing, and the only proper thing, to come here, to the House of Commons, and on the floor of this House, face to face with the Minister you condemn, to fight the matter out." We are specially glad that Mr. Asquith drove home the responsibility for this peculiarly offensive and harmful falsehood. The belief that the soldiers and police are sent to drive the miners back to work on the masters' terms is readily swallowed• by men accustomed to hear such silly rhetoric about the classes ; and with the worst results. Its effect is to make the men stubborn and unyielding. Instead of helping the soldiers to keep the peace, which the majority of the miners would be naturally inclined to do, they regard them as acting not in the public interest, but in the interests of the masters, and so refuse to yield them the slightest support. Those who have helped to spread this feeling deserve the strongest condemnation,—the blood of the men killed is, in truth, on their heads. Mr. Asquith did not go the least bit too far when he denounced them as he did. That the Home Secretary carried the House with him was obvious from the line of defence adopted by Mr. John Burns. Mr. Burns is a very adroit as well as a very able man, and has to the full the orator's gift of feeling an audience's pulse and knowing what is the sort of oratorical cordial that can be " exhibited " with success. He merely regretted the absence of the Labour Members, and backed up Mr. Asquith's general remarks directed against the centralising of the police-force, sliding gently from that to elected Magis- trates. The House was not in a mood for talk about a brutal soldiery, and the wholesale slaughter of men who were merely looking on at a fire. On the whole, the riot incidents have done Mr. Asquith good. It has shown that a man may be a Radical and yet not hesitate to shoot ; and that at least one Member of the Government is not afraid of the Labour Members.
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