There is no doubt that we are face to face with a great, unprecedented Crisis in the Industrial History of this country, and in order for any Government to legislate effectively it is necessary that they should understand the whole political situation, I confidently suggest to this House that this is a purely political strike.

I do urge upon them in this Crisis in Our Industrial History to get rid of those old ideas and endeavour to join up forces, in order that we may do everything we possibly can to put our industries on their feet again and so enable them to recover the ground which they so unfortunately lost in the War or through the results of the War.

We have been warned by Ministers, by economists and others, that we are approaching the gravest Crisis in Our Industrial History.