Trade Unionist Sanity The outstanding feature of the Trade Union
movement in Great Britain is its essential sanity. That has been evidenced at, the Trades Union Congress in session at Plymouth this week, notably in the emphasis with which the Secretary, Sir. Walter Citrine, insisted, with the approval. of a large majority of delegates, that a general strike even of twenty-four hours. as a protest against the new means test .regulations would. be a fatal blow at democratic' government in this country. The antithesis between persuasion 13y. reason ,and argument and recourse to extra-constitutional means is fundamental, and in the turmoil of unrest that is sweeping the world it is pro- foundly reassuring to find the trade unionists of this country declaring resolutely for constitutional means. The uneasiness of the Congress about events in Spain is not astonishing, but here again Congress followed the path of manifest wisdom in deciding, however reluctantly, to support the Government in its policy of non-intervention. Unqualified though the hostility of the Congress to all that the rebel forces in Spain stand for is, it is becoming in- creasingly doubtful what,the Government, both as it is and as it may develop, stands for. That,: coupled with the fact that intervention in , the Government's . favour, .would., at ,onoe stimulate unlimited support of the rebels by the Fascist Governments of Europe, provides the best of reasons why the trade unionists should decide to leave intervention alone.
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