We greatly regret to record that the dock strike still
remains unsettled. On Wednesday somewhat serious rioting took place, but what was, in our opinion, infinitely more serious was the nature of a meeting held at Tower Hill at which speeches of extraordinary violence and malignity were made. Mr. Williams, the Secretary of the Transport Workers' Federation, did all he could to flog the unfortunate men he
has misled into criminal violence. He was, he declared, not satisfied with the men's quiescent attitude. " The workers in no other town in England and Wales would have submitted in the quiet way they had done." Mr. Ben Tillett's speech we quote verbatim from the Times report :— " Mr. Ben Tillett said he was going to ask the men to join him in a prayer. Lord Dovonport had contributed to the murder by starvation of their children, their women, and their men. He was not going to ask the men to do it, but he was going to call upon God to strike Lord Devonport dead. Ho asked those who were prepared to respond to that prayer to hold up their hands. With hands raised in the air the mon then repeated the following prayer, word for word, after Mr. Tillett: 0 God, strike Lord Devonport dead.' It should be added that, though the response to the speaker's dramatic appeal was general, the men exhibited no anger or excitement and seemed to look upon the incident as a humorous diversion in the proceedings. Mr. Tillett, however, added that he quite meant what he said. Vermin like that ought not to live."
Mr. Cunninghame-Graham followed with a piece of blas- phemous buffoonery :- " He admired Mr. Tillett's prayer and the men's response to it. He thought the Great Power was on strike, too. The capitalists had bought the Press, Parliament, and the pulpit, and sometimes he thought that they had bought God, too."
