Page:Cook (1927) The Nine Days.djvu/20

 Then the question is asked: "Why was the strike called off?"

I have kept a daily diary of events which I hope some day to publish more fully. For the moment I only desire to print these facts to encourage the workers to press forward still, despite the failings, the treachery of some individuals.

There are, I am aware, on the General Council a number of men and women whose only object was to serve the best interests of the miners, who worked night and day to that end. But they were guided in their final decisions by the Negotiating Committee, of whom J. H. Thomas was the determining voice.

The miners' representatives learnt that individuals had been meeting both the Negotiating Committee and that the Parliamentary Labour leaders had been in private discussing with notable individuals.

Enters on the scene the Chairman of the Coal Commission, Sir Herbert Samuel. He had returned post haste to England from abroad. Whether he was sent for or whether he returned voluntarily, I do not know, but the fact, nevertheless, remains that as soon as he arrived in England he was seen by the Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas and others, and discussions began in private. Those who had been unwilling and hesitant to go into the strike were continually seeking some way out of it.

These discussions were held simply with a view to creating some pretext to justify calling off the General Strike. That is my opinion based on facts as I have seen them.

On Sunday, May 9th, it was quite evident that these discussions and pow-wows had reached a stage when the Negotiating Committee and the leaders of the Labour Party felt that something tangible had been secured to justify a move towards calling off the General Strike.

Discussions, especially with Thomas and Bromley, were such as to lead me to that conclusion; and we were again pressed by certain individuals to consider proposals for a reduction of wages. Attempts were being made by the Negotiating Committee of the T.U.C., to draft new formulæ—to use the expression of our President, Herbert Smith, "To provide a new suit of clothes for the same body."

Here I must again declare my pride of our President, Herbert Smith, who, in his own Yorkshire dialect, defended the miners' case heroically. Every one of my Committee felt