Unemployed March to London.

Part of Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 28 November 1922.

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Photo of Mr Bonar Law Mr Bonar Law , Glasgow Central

Everyone who looks at it dispassionately will say that a Cabinet is composed of men—I declined to quote the Latin the other day, and I decline to quote it now—the best among equals. That is the theory of our Cabinet. What could be specially gained by these men seeing me I have received, I do not know how-many, letters all giving different reasons why I ought to see them. The only possible justification for those letters was chat I was not merely dictator but actually all-powerful, and could do absolutely anything that was asked. That is not so. If I had seen them, as the Cabinet Ministers deputed were willing to set them, all I should have done would have been to listen to their views, ask them questions, and bring their views before the Cabinet. In what way, then, are they injured by my adopting and adhering to a principle which everyone on these benches admits is right? In what way are they injured by my not seeing them? The hon. Member says we have a certain responsibility if anything happens to these men. I do not admit that for a minute. I have to consider not merely this particular case, I have to consider something else. They are not the only unemployed. If they get it into their heads that they can achieve any object—even the small object, as it seems to me, of making me change my mind—by coming to London, it will not be the only deputation to march to London, and you will find that in hundreds of cases the same plan is tried again.

Let me say this further. I do not accuse the hon. Member—indeed, it would be absurd to do so—of in any way attempting to exploit these people, but I do say—and I am sure he will not resent my saying it—that if there is responsibility, as he thinks, on my part, because I refuse to see them, there is equal responsibility on his part in encouraging them to stay here, when I am sure he knows that it really is quite impossible to go back on the decision which I have given. Let me give my reason for saying that it really is quite impossible to go back, for in my opinion it is. I do not believe that anyone who occupied my position, after what has happened, could reverse the decision he had made, and if it be any satisfaction to the hon. Member, I believe it is true to say that I am as little influenced probably as most men by the feeling that I have said something and must stick to it. Certainly in the last Parliament, when I was Leader of the House, over and over again when I felt that I had made a mistake, I was not the least ashamed to admit it, and frankly said to the House that I yielded to their decision. I would not hesitate to do it now, but the hon. Member must bear this in mind, though I agree that probably 90 per cent, of these men are unemployed, it is the fact that I have not been uninterested in this matter. I have taken the trouble to read the reports of their speeches. What do they come to? The recent speeches which I have read are all to this effect: "If we can force Bonar Law to see us we have won a great victory." It has ceased to be a question of getting news about unemployment, of getting reports of what we would do-they could get that from my colleagues just as well as from me. Their object now, so far as the speeches are concerned, is to obtain a victory, so that they can go back and say "He refused to see us and we compelled him to do so." That, really, is the point of all the speeches, as the hon. Member knows, for I am sure he has read them.

Is it possible that any Government can be carried on on that system 1 There are many bad forms of government, but that 'would be a government by threats, and of all the forms of bad government, I think that would be one of the worst. I can assure the hon. Member that it was not from lack of sympathy that my original decision was taken, but because I believed it was the right way to deal with this question. My adherence to it is because I still think it is the right way, and because, having clearly and emphatically stated that to be my decision, I am ready to give them every facility for stating their case and hearing our remedy, but that I have decided I would not see them myself. To go back on that would do them infinitely more harm than can possibly be done by my adhering to my decision.

I am sure the hon. Gentleman knows that whether I was right or wrong in my original decision—I think I was right, I am sure I would do it again—no one in my position could go back on it now. Nobody could, and I do urge the hon. Member, in compassion for these people, not to encourage them to stay on in expectation of something that they will not get.