WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

PROBLEMS OF LABOUR UNREST 183
that the firm would respond to appeals made to it to modify
its attitude. Meantime the workers of the firm had handed
in their notices and on April 29th, a mass meeting at Rochdale
decided to strike in sympathy with them. Next day the
shop stewards in Manchester induced the workers in the
engineering shops there to join the strike. By May 5th,
sixty thousand men were on strike in Lancashire, and in the
course of the next few days the strikes spread to Sheffield,
Rotherham, Derby, Crayford, Erith, Woolwich and through
the London district. While the original strike in Lancashire
was based on opposition to dilution in non-government work,
elsewhere the shop stewards seized the moment to protest
against the withdrawal of the Trade Card system.
Although the Government brought the Rochdale firm
to heel and made satisfactory terms with the authorities of
the A.S.E. regarding the conditions under which the Trade
Card was to be superseded, the strikes persisted. The Ministry
could not negotiate direct with the shop stewards without
betraying the recognised officials of the Trade Unions,
who were being defied by the ringleaders of the strikes. The
grievance of the workers was removed by the peremptory
action of the Ministry and the stoppage at Rochdale ended
on May 8th. But in Manchester, Merseyside, Sheffield and
the London district it continued, and attempts were made
to stop the power houses. The situation was repeatedly considered
in the War Cabinet. On May 16th, we decided that the
Government should adhere to its policy of recognising only
the constituted authorities of the Trade Unions, and that no
deputation from the shop stewards should be received except
at the request of the executive of the Union.
On the following day we had a conference at Downing
Street, at which we decided to take action against ten of the
most violent ringleaders of the strikes. Eight of them were
promptly arrested and placed in Brixton jail. The other two