In the House of 'Cominons on Monday there was a
vain attempt to convict the Home Secretary of trying to suppress freedom of speech. Mr. Cook, Mr. Herbert Smith and other of the miners' leaders had been prohibited from speaking in certain areas, and it was at first supposed that this was the result of a direct ban from the Home Office. It appeared afterwards, however, that the Chief Constables in the areas concerned had exercised their own discretion under the special powers given to them by the Home Office. Their object was to prevent breaches of the peace. In one case a meeting which had been banned was allowed to take place later. There is no doubt that in Staffordshire, for instance, where Mr. Cook was prevented from speaking, he had made on a previous occasion a speech of a very provocative and subversive kind.
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