Mexborough and Swinton Times, May 14, 1926

The General Strike.
Dramatic Collapse.
T.U.C. Call It Off: Miners Disapprove.
Coal Commission Chairman Intervenes.
A Plan For A Coal Settlement.
Railway Companies’ Attitude: New Difficulties.

Th great strike ended yesterday, May 12th, as suddenly and dramatically it began on Tuesday, May 4th.

On Tuesday night the General Council of the T.U.C. met the leaders of the Miners’ Union and discussed with them a formula unofficially submitted to the T.U.C. by Sir Herbert Samuel, Chairman of the Coal Commission, for the settlement of the mining dispute, with the abandonment of the general strike as a condition precedent.

It subsequently transpired that the miners’ representatives rejected this formula and opposed the proposal to call off the general strike. The T.U.C. nevertheless decided that the strike must be called off, and at 12.20 p.m. on Wednesday they waited upon the Prime Minister at Downing Street, for the purpose of announcing this. The announcement was made by Mr. Arthur Pugli, chairman of the General Council of the T.U.C., who said that the general strike was to be terminated forthwith, in order that negotiations for a settlement of the mining dispute might proceed.

‘Thank God.’

The Prime Minister said he thanked God for this decision, and he added that he fully confirmed the last two paragraphs of his broadcast speech on Saturday last, intimating his willingness to promote a settlement of the mining dispute. Mr. J. H. Thomas said he wished the Prime Minister would ask employers, and all others to make the position as easy and smooth as possible, because, he said, ‘we must not have guerilla warfare.’ Mr. Bevin, another member of the T.U.C. delegation, said he would like to stress that point, and ask whether the Prime Minister was prepared to make a general request that facilities for reinstatement should be given forthwith. The Prime Minister said he could not commit himself at the moment to a statement on that subject, but he agreed that the best thing to do would be to get into touch with the employers and the quicker that was done the less friction there would be.

‘You know’, he added, ‘my record, you know the object of my policy, and I think you may trust me to consider what has been said with a view to seeing how best we can get the country quickly back into condition in which we all want to see it. You will want my co-operation and I shall want yours, to try and make good the damage done to trade and try and make this country a little better and happier than it has been in recent years. That will be my steady endeavour, and I look to all of you, when we are through this, for your co-operation in that.’

The news of the abandonment of the General Strike was at once issued to the Press and wirelessed to every station in the country. Shortly after one o’clock the whole nation was aware that the General Strike was at an end, and before the end of the day there was a considerable resumption of work, but this was by no means general, and the railwaymen found themselves confronted with terms of reinstatement which large bodies of them refuse to accept without further elucidation. Very few railwaymen in this district had returned to work yesterday.