It was common report that the moderate Labour leaders, like
Mr. J. H. Thomas and Mr. Pugh, who during the greater part of the negotiations were in the ascendant on the Industrial Committee of the Trades Union Con- gress, did not believe that a general strike was coming. For that matter it is probable that a great many extremists did not believe it either. They all hoped to bluff up till the last moment and then agree to the best settlement of the coal dispute they could get. This was perhaps natural. When money has been freely flying about and there is a probability of more to come all the parties who are likely to benefit from the largesse go on hopefully making maximum demands as long as they possibly can. When at last the general strike arrived the authors of it did not know what to do with it. For years they had bemused themselves by talking about it until they came to believe that it was an end in itself. They had not thought out either its application or its sequels. •
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