Mr. Larkin was the principal speaker on Wednesday night at
the Albert Hall meeting organized by the Daily Herald League, with Mr. Lambury in the chair. The announcement that the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress had decided to postpone action in regard to the Dublin strike for three weeks by calling a national conferenee for December 9th was greeted with angry cries by the audience, but Mr. Larkin abstained from hostile criticism, admitting that, though three weeks was a long time to wait, the British Labour leaders had got vast responsibilities. He promised, there- fore, to continue the strike until the English leaders were ready. For the rest he distributed impartial abuse on the Government; the Dublin press ; Mr. Birrell, "a loafer, idler, and trickster who was nearly always on holiday"; Lord-Aber- deen ; Mr. Redmond, who "played golf and went to picnics, but left Dublin to rot"; the Ancient Order of Hibernians; and "the present bastard Home Rule Bill," though he avowed his enthusiasm for Home Rule in the abstract. Those who went expecting a red-hot revolutionary speech must have been disappointed. Mr. Larkin's attitude towards the trade union leaders was positively respectful. He watered clown the strong wine of his previous utterances, while the new violence was personal, incoherent, and grotesque, as when he spoke of Sir Edward Carson as "a cadaverous lawyer who always 'looked sick' at the psychological moment." How would Mr. Larkin like to be called a Labour Dictator who went to prison at the psychological moment
Previous page
