The Henson Journals

[192]

Friday, March 14th, 1924.

I worked at the Edinburgh Article: walked in the Park with Jimmie Dobbie: and read Wilberforce's Life. The weather is milder, & indeed almost spring–like. Today the miners are deciding whether they will accept the terms proposed by the Masters. It is a new thing, I imagine, that the employers should make an offer in advance of the conflict, and, if as is said to be the present case, the offer is generous, it ought to prevent the conflict, & promote better feeling. But will it? That there are powerful forces making for strife in the camp of the miners is certain. That the existence of a Labour Government in command of the administrative & executive offices of the state is acting as a powerful stimulus of those forces is, to say the least, highly probable. That the miners are as helpless and docile as sheep in the hands of their leaders is apparent. How is optimism in these circumstances possible?