During the week there has been a great deal of
confused discussion as to the duty of the Government to stop the strike somehow or other, and of suggestion as to how this could be accomplished. For ourselves we agree very strongly with Sir Edward Fry's letter to the Times, in which he points out that the Government ought to make it clear that they mean to secure to the fullest possible extent the right to work.
Cost what it will, they must prevent disorder, and especially disorder aimed at preventing men who wish to work from exercising this elementary liberty of the subject. No doubt some timid people think that a firm declaration by the Government just now that they moan to do their duty would have an irritating effect upon the men, but that we take leave to doubt. The men have such an over- weening notion of the power of the unions that they think the Government can be bluffed into not using the soldiers to secure order, and that therefore they, the unions, will be able to prevent foreign coal being brought in from abroad. The Government should make it clear that they are fully prepared to deal with any movement of this kind, and that they will see to it that men engaged in unloading foreign coal and transporting it shall not be molested, even if in order to do this it is necessary to call out the Reserves and to swear in special constables by the hundred thousand.
