WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

190 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
take him there, despite the request of the Government, and insisted
on keeping him in England, where, knowing him better
than I did, they felt certain he would be harmless. He must
surely be grateful to them to-day.
The sailors were risking their lives to help the country
through its agony. The Russian convulsion had undoubtedly
upset the equilibrium of the worker everywhere. We felt it
in our coal mines and in our munition works when everything
depended upon whole-hearted energy and cooperation. There
were disputes and misunderstandings which had a perceptible
effect upon the output of material essential to victory. Mr.
Ramsay MacDonald had done his best by speeches, by
writings, by clandestine manoeuvring and stimulating organisation
to accentuate difficulties. The sailors knew there were
men of like mind and purpose in Russia who were striving
to persuade their fellow countrymen to break faith with the
nations which had come to the aid of theirs at a critical
moment. And quite frankly, the seamen thought they were
serving their country by preventing people of this sort from
coming together to foment mischief at this critical hour. They
did not trust Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's patriotism. Can you
blame them?
The English Revolution on Russian lines which was to
start up passed off thus with little damage done. The Commissions
on Industrial Unrest made rapid progress with their
investigation into the genuine causes of uneasiness, and by
or before the 12 th of July, the reports of all the eight commissions
had been completed, though a further supplementary
report by the Northwestern Area Commissioners on the
Barrow-in-Furness District could not be sent in until the
16th. On July 17th, Mr. George Barnes, the Minister for
Labour, was able to submit to me all these nine reports, together
with his summary of their contents.
A reassuring feature of these was their agreement that: