General Strike Day 4: Friday 7 May 1926
[Special Constables being thanked for their service during the strike by the Lord Mayor of London, a slide for a talk on the General StrikeLink opens in a new window, included in the archives of Henry Sara]
The Council is engaged in an Industrial dispute. There is no Constitutional crisis"
The British WorkerLink opens in a new window, 7 May 1926
- Sir Herbert Samuel opens private talks with the Trades Union Congress, offering his services as a mediator, the miners' representatives are not informed.
- The Trades Union Congress General Council contradicts the Prime Minister's statement yesterday that "constitutional government is being attacked", replying that "The General Council does not challenge the Constitution. It is not seeking to substitute unconstitutional government. Nor is it desirous of undermining our Parliamentary institutions. The sole aim of the Council is to secure for the miners a decent standard of lifeLink opens in a new window."
- The BBC broadcasts a government announcement that "All ranks of the armed forces of the crown are hereby informed that any action which they may find it necessary to take in an honest endeavour to aid the civil power will receive, both now and afterwards the full support of His Majesty's GovernmentLink opens in a new window." The announcement will also be printed in tomorrow's edition of 'The British Gazette'Link opens in a new window.
- William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, makes another radio appeal for volunteers to serve as special constablesLink opens in a new window - asking for another fifty thousand men to be sworn in by Monday morning ("Surely there must be another thirty thousand men in London willing and anxious to serve their country for a few days or even weeks in this crisis?").
- The Archbishop of Canterbury, on behalf of leaders of the Christian churches, puts forward proposals for a settlement. The BBC refuses to broadcast them.
- 'The British Gazette' is discussed in the House of Commons, with some opposition members complaining that the official government newspaper is providing biased reports of parliamentary debatesLink opens in a new window. The Liberal MP Commander Kenworthy makes an appeal that "nothing should be put into this official organ to inflame the passions of the hooligans of the Right to acts which would bring reprisals and lead to things which we would regret in calmer times."
- At the request of the National Sailors’ and Firemen's Union, a court injunction is granted against several of the union's Liverpool branches, preventing them from ordering their members out on strike before a ballot is taken.
- A.J. Cook, General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, calls off his intended visit to the International Miners’ Conference in Ostend.
- The Trades Union Congress General Council reduces the size of its newspaper, 'The British Worker'Link opens in a new window, by half, as the government blocks the TUC's access to supplies of paper.
- Isabel Brown, a school teacher and Communist, is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment for making a seditious speech in Castleford, Yorkshire.
- The headquarters of the Communist Party in Birmingham are raided by the police, and people engaged in printing the news sheet 'Birmingham Worker' are arrested.
- The out-patients department of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children will be closed until further notice.
- Police baton-charge in Hull, after strikers try to prevent volunteers enrolling at the City Hall.
- Three men in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, sentenced to three months imprisonment for smashing windows. "The men had expressed a desire for gaol till the strike is over"Link opens in a new window.
Selected sources:
- Summaries of BBC news broadcasts:
- 'The British Gazette', no.3Link opens in a new window, emergency newspaper issued by the government
- 'The British Worker', no.3Link opens in a new window, official strike news bulletin of the Trades Union Congress
- Trades Union Congress General Council official bulletin, no.4Link opens in a new window
- Trades Union Congress Intelligence Committee 'Intelligence Service' bulletin no.5Link opens in a new window, 5.30pm
- Trades Union Congress Intelligence Committee progress of the strike report, no.2Link opens in a new window, 12.30pm
- 'The Daily Mirror'Link opens in a new window, illustrated emergency edition
- 'The Daily Telegraph'Link opens in a new window, emergency edition
- 'The Investor News Bulletin'. No. 2 (2.30 edition)Link opens in a new window
- The churches and the industrial crisisLink opens in a new window, Trades Union Congress leaflet, [1926]