§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (West Ham, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that 50,000 persons, many of whom are women and children, are suffering in consequence of the Hull strike; and whether the Government will set apart one evening this week for discussing a definite pro- 1743 posal for bringing the dispute to a termination?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEI can very well believe, in reference to the first part of the question, that it may be taken for granted that not only great inconvenience but considerable suffering must have resulted from the prolongation of the present state of things at Hull; but, notwithstanding, I hope the hon. Member will not think it due to any want of sympathy on my part if I say that I cannot, in the present state of the facts, hold out any encouragement in reference to the suggestion he makes. The Government have very strongly indicated their interest in the subject in the person of my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, who has exerted himself, in conjunction with other hon. Members of this House desirous to obtain a settlement, and the result of their negotiation was that they did attain to what might be termed a definite plan for a settlement, which, however, undoubtedly has for the moment entirely failed. With regard to the intervention of this House, I consider it would be a very serious matter. Of course, if any question in the nature of a grievance is considered to have arisen at Hull or anywhere else, that is a fit matter for the consideration of the House; but as to the intervention of the House with respect to some definite plan, I must observe that every plan is indefinite until we know what it is. No such plan is suggested in the present question. I think the House will agree that it would not be seemly, nor politic, nor desirable that this House should attempt to interpose unless it were with some very definite and hopeful prospect of success, because such interposition would undoubtedly tend to excite expectations the excitement of which, without our being able to fulfill them, would amount to a public mischief.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEMay I ask if the right hon. Gentleman is prepared to give urgency to the Arbitration Bill supposed to be in charge of the President of the Board of Trade, and make it compulsory in its provisions as a definite proposal for meeting the present dispute at Hull?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEWell, Sir, I think that is putting to me a very difficult question. My right hon. Friend 1744 is probably better able to answer the most important part of it than I am; but it appears to me that to ask this House to pass a Compulsory Arbitration Bill— though I am not about to condemn in the abstract the principle of such a measure—would require a good deal of consideration, and the strongest assurances that it would be received with satisfaction. I must confess that I do not at this moment see any likelihood of this Bill being available as a sudden and instantaneous remedy in the existing embarrassment.
§ MR. DARLING (Deptford)Is the House to understand that the President of the Board of Trade, in the recent negotiation in which he took part, was acting on behalf of Her Majesty's Government or as a private individual?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEIt could not be said to be on the part of Her Majesty's Government in an official sense, because, in an official sense, Her Majesty's Government had no right whatever to intervene; but I think that the Colleagues of my right hon. Friend— I myself and the rest of his Colleagues— viewed with great sympathy and goodwill his intervention, and very cordially desired that he might be able to bring about a settlement.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIEWill the right hon. Gentleman give urgency to the Bill in the charge of the President of the Board of Trade as now drafted?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONETo take precedence over all other subjects? I do not think we ought to take a step of that kind, or alter the course of Government Business, unless it were with some real hope of a substantial and definite kind of being able to do good. Otherwise, I am afraid we should be exciting an expectation we should not be able to fulfil, which would be a public evil.