We must protest here against the tone of a portion
of the telegram sent by Mr. Churchill on Wednesday. To say, as he did, to the miners that "their best friends here are greatly distressed at the trouble which has broken out, and will do their best to help them to get fair treatment," is to abandon a judicial position for that of a sentimentalist and a partisan. While rioting which has not the excuse of hunger or of exasperation at injudicious interference by the authorities is proceeding, persons in the position of the Home Secretary should make it clear that order must be restored before any other steps are taken, and that the abandonment of violence is an essential condition to inquiry. To talk of helping men to get fair treatment while they are looting goes perilously near to providing excuses for them when they burn, wreck, and stone.
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