§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEI do not know whether the noble Viscount is prepared to add anything to the information which he was good enough to give us last night as to the condition of things in the labour market. I am sure the House would be glad to learn anything that there is to be learned with regard to the latest development.
§ VISCOUNT HALDANEThe most recent information is this. In London the improvement has in most directions been maintained, but I am sorry to say that in other directions new demands are being made which are causing a certain amount of difficulty because they seem to be going back on agreements already come to. Some 1145 of the lightermen have come out because they refused to work under non-union foremen, and then there is the question to which I referred yesterday arising from the claims of the dockers at the Victoria and Albert Docks to be engaged outside the dock gates. Negotiations are going on and the best is being done that can be done, but we cannot forecast what the result will be. In Liverpool the comparative quiet of yesterday continued throughout the night. Some tramway men came out yesterday, and there have been attacks on the trams, but not of a serious character. The gravest feature so far as Liverpool is concerned, is that the Strike Committee have called on the men employed in the electric power station to come out at 2 p.m. to-day. Whether they have come out or not I do not know. If they have, the result will be to stop all trams and cut off the electric light in Liverpool, Bootle, and the large areas around. There have been one or two fires in vessels in the docks, but they have been put out before much damage could be done. A cruiser has been sent by the Admiralty to the Mersey for purposes of protection. In Liverpool there are, I think, sufficient troops—4,760 Infantry and Cavalry in all. The situation is being watched, and more will be sent if necessary for the preservation of order. In Manchester there has been no marked change in the situation.
1146 The convoys of food have been kept up in spite of desultory attacks made, not by decent working men, but by hooligans and strikers. In Sheffield convoys of food are also being constantly attacked, chiefly by persons of the hooligan class. Infantry have recently arrived in Sheffield, and they will give any assistance necessary for the preservation of order. At one of the railway stations there was an attack last night on a signal box by a mob which threw stones from a bridge and drove out the signalmen. Assistance to guard the railway has now been given. So far as the general situation is concerned I have nothing I can usefully add. There was a meeting this morning at the Board of Trade between some of the representatives of the men and the Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade, but I have no statement to make of what passed. We have thought it right to restore things to their normal position by letting the Guards Brigade return to their regular station in London. I trust, however, that no occasion will arise for their service. For the rest the situation is being carefully and closely watched, and we hope we are in a position to deal with developments of it so far as law and order are concerned.
§ House adjourned at five minutes past Five o'clock, till To-morrow, Three o'clock.