Mr. Tillett and Mr. Burns have been the main leaders
of the men on strike, and they have exerted themselves to prevent anything like the use of violence. Of course, a great many charges of intimidation have been brought, and no doubt a certain number of threats have been used to prevent labourers from accepting offers of work ; but, on the whole, it seems to be generally admitted that the men who have asserted that they were intimidated were very willing indeed to be inti- midated, and that sympathy had much more to do with their co-operation than fear. A very remarkable feature of the strike has been the eagerness of the allied callings to give support, and the subscriptions received from outsiders con- vinced of the hard treatment to which the dock-labourers had been subjected. The real pinch of the question has been the demand for a rise of wages from 5d. to 6d. an hour (a rise of 20 per cent.) for the unskilled labourer, which the Dock Com- panies maintain to be a rise which they could not give without receiving higher terms from the merchants and brokers, and these again, they, for their part, are not willing to give. The concession of the other demands is admitted to be, ixi the main, reasonable and admissible ; but on the point of 6d. an hour the Dock Companies have not thought it possible to give way. Yesterday afternoon the strike still continued, and no sign of a settlement was observable.
