THE WELSH RIOTS. T HE riots in the coal trade of
South Wales are the most acute symptom which has yet appeared in Great Britain of the general unrest affecting Labour all over Europe. We shall not discuss again the reasons of that unrest ; enough to remark once more the curious paradox that it should appear at a time when trade is on the rebound after a period of depression, and. when wages are generally higher than for some time past. The dis- content of the workers is evidently something which lies beyond and above such considerations. It has not apparently based itself on any coherent argument or on any rational vision of the future; it is of its essence vague. The worst sign about it is that it threatens the very existence of Trade-Unionism owing to the widespread habit into which the men have fallen of throwing over their leaders and disregarding their pledged word. Trade-Unionism has done immense service to the country by bringing employers and employees together in a manageable and humanising relation ; but the mainte- nance of that relation depends upon the willingness of the men to abide by the agreements entered into on their behalf by the officials whom they themselves have appointed. The younger members of Trade-Unions are intolerant of what they consider the small results achieved by their leaders ; they speak of their leaders with impatience and disrespect, and in practice prove their contempt for them by ostenta- tiously setting aside their instructions or advice. In the South Wales coalfields the rioters have got more hopelessly beyond the control of their officials than in any other case. The officials have done their best, so far as we can learn, to recall the men to reason, to prevent them from destroying the sources of their employment, and from senselessly pillaging and sacking the property of their own friends and neighbours. But they might as well have tried to ride the whirlwind. On Monday serious trouble began when the twelve thousand strikers of the Cambrian Coal Trust Collieries began to intimidate non-Union labourers at Clydach Vale, Penygraig, and Tonypandy. Colliery buildings were rushed in the Mid-Rhondda, and in an attack on the Glamorgan Colliery a police inspector was so badly wounded that he may not recover. On Tuesday the riots became more general and more violent. Troops were sent from Salisbury Plain in response to a request from the Chief Constable of Glamorganshire. These, however, were stopped before they reached the spot by Mr. Churchill, who sent down a force of London policemen instead. Mr. Churchill has been much blamed for what is called his vacillation, and it is asserted that the shops of Tonypandy which were looted and wrecked on Tuesday would have been saved but for the few hours' delay between the countermanding of the order to the troops and the arrival of the police. We cannot join in. this particular censure. It is easy to say afterwards that this and that would not have happened, but cause and effect cannot be worked out with this sort of mathematical precision. If shops had been saved from the anarchical fury of the Welshmen, who seemed scarcely to know what they were doing, that advantage might easily have been eclipsed by fatal collisions between the soldiers and people who were in that temper. In all but the last resort we should prefer the employment of police- men to that of soldiers. It is the profession of the police to manage unruly mobs, and they are bound to have a judgment derived from long experience which soldiers are without. There is nothing derogatory to the Army in saying that nine times out of ten the Metropolitan Police would restore order in a disturbed town more quickly than soldiers could. True, soldiers armed with bayonets or ball cartridge, or both, might produce the calm of terror more quickly than the police, but really to restore order requires a great many constructive qualities which soldiers have not particularly cultivated.
Amid all the dissatisfaction at the employment of the police we notice no special recognition of the exceptional bravery with which they have behaved. Perhaps we ought not to say "exceptional," for their coolness and their forti- tude, which might be called stoical if they were not so good-tempered, are habitual. To withstand a frenzied crowd throwing glass and stones with only a truncheon for defence is no child's-play, and so long as the police can produce such wonderful results with such small means, we certainly think that bayonets and bullets, though they ought to be kept handy, should not be brought into play without second thoughts.
While, however, we think that Mr. Churchill acted wisely in employing the police, it is impossible to continue to praise him when we consider his m to the rioters. To the Chief Constable he telegraphed :—" You may give the miners the following message from me. 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. Askwith, Board of Trade, wishes to see Mr. Watts Morgan with six or eight local representatives at Board of Trade 2 o'clock to-morrow. But rioting must cease at once so that the inquiry shall not be prejudiced and to prevent the credit of the Rhondda Valley being injured. Confiding in the good sense of the Cambrian Combine workmen, we are holding back the soldiers for the present and sending police instead." Surely this is a model of what a message from the Home Office ought not to be. What right has the Home Secretary to take up the position of a partisan, and assume that the men have been unfairly treated? He may believe it if he likes, and he may be quite justified in his belief ; but he is doing the greatest injury and discredit to his important office if he declares himself in favour of one side and against another at the moment when the side he favours is breaking the law. His words are a foolish bribe to law-breakers to cease their criminal acts, and it is astonish- ing to us that Mr. Churchill did not see the impropriety of using them.
The most exciting episode in the riots was perhaps the siege of the power-house in one mine, which was defended by Mr. Llewellyn, the general manager of the Cambrian Coal Trust, and a staff of about twenty-five assistants.
This small party managed to keep the fires going, though most of them had never done any stoking in their lives, and thus they saved the mine from flooding and maintained the ventilation. They worked for two nights and a day without cessation. Probably the greatest danger was on Monday night, when the palings round the colliery yard were pulled down by the rioters—" They dragged them down like wild animals," said Mr. Llewellyn—who nearly carried the position. Of course if the mine were flooded employment would be gone for some time to come even if the strike ended. But the strikers behaved with a mad fury which makes one hope that strikes will be very rare in a district where the Celtic fire expresses itself thus unhappily. How different is the patient method, with which the boilermakers' trade dispute is being conducted. The men believe that they are aggrieved, and they exercise their right not to work if it so pleases them without violence to persons or property. That is conduct which one can respect, and it is also a far more effectual argument. When men are in the frame of mind of the Welsh rioters, there is less chance than usual of a profitable conclusion to discussion. They will not till they grow cooler admit themselves to be wrong. But that still leaves the duty of the Government perfectly plain. It is to protect property and to save every man from personal violence. The havoc wrought at Tonypandy might have been imitated direct from a French campaign of sabotage; but a Government must make no excuses for this kind of thing, because it may be represented as in intention an industrial argument. It is crime, and no casuistry should be allowed to disguise it. In the long run the suppression of crime serves Labour quite as well as it serves the rest of the State.
Previous page
