Page:Cook (1927) The Nine Days.djvu/15

 This created consternation among many of the General Council, and some of them were ready to immediately disown or to protest against the action of the "Daily Mail" printers. The Negotiating Committee were instructed by the General Council to again see the Prime Minister to explain to him the position, etc., but they found that he had retired. And we were politely informed that our presence was undesirable as everybody had retired, so at midnight or just after we left Downing Street for Eccleston Square, where J. H. Thomas by my side told a pressman "That the Government had declared war"; and he said to me "We must now, Cook, fight for our lives."

As is now well-known, the T.U.C.'s reply to the Prime Minister's letter breaking off negotiations ran as follows:—