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The smallness of the majority was, however, in some ways

misleading. For example, some of the Midland districts which have virtually thrown over the Federa- tion voted against acceptance for the simple reason that they believed that better terms could be obtained by district bargaining than were contained in the Govern- ment's scheme. Thus the Midlands voted with die-hard districts like South Wales for quite contrary reasons. Mr. Cook was violently opposed to acceptance, and described the Government's proposals as the worst terms that could possibly be got. The majority, however, saw clearly that though the terms were worse than could have been had easily months ago they were now the only terms which would preserve a national principle.

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