South Yorkshire Times April 01st 1944
Waiting for the Zero Hour
Waiting for zero hour is always apt to be a trying experience. It tests the fibre of a nation as it does the spirit of fighting men. On the whole Britain has come well out of such tests of this sort as the war has so far imposed. There were possibilities of a very sinister zero hour after Dunkirk and the nation braced itself magnificently. When the Germans and Italians were at the gates of Suez Britain stood just as firm, and the dark days of Japanese conquest may have shaken but never shattered the national morale. These were lessons in discipline in the face of defeat. Now we await a zero hour of quite different type, and though the pulse of the nation on the whole beats strongly and steadily there is a certain irregularity which is disturbing.
The House of Commons stressed its essential democracy on the issue of equal pay for women teachers, but it was an unnecessary and ill-timed gesture. At this time when the minds and energies of our leaders ought to be concentrated exclusively on the great attack which we are preparing in the West it was unfortunate that precious days had to be frittered away in demonstrating to the world that Mr. Churchill’s Government still enjoys the unwavering confidence of the British people. The Prime Minister has been criticised for his handling of this situation, but his action was prompt, robust and unequivocal, and obviated the dangers of a prolonged and distracting wrangle in which sides would have been taken to the detriment of the overriding calls for present unity of aim and purpose.
Strikes among the miners and the engineering apprentices have revealed another frayed edge in the national fibre. We can only hope that these have done no lasting disservice to the men who will soon face the murderous task of breaking into Germany’s continental positions. Labour troubles of this magnitude are a good deal more delicate than artificial constitutional crises.
Fortunately the strikers have seen reason and a strength between authority and anarchy has been averted. Even in so, things have gone far enough to show that the Government must strengthen its hand as a precaution against obstruction of this kind at such a critical moment in the war. Steps must be taken to see that the Minister of Labour’s undertaking that unofficial strikers will not be permitted to jeopardise hopes of victory is fully implemented.
The time to establish the necessary powers is now, before the country is in the throes of worse strikes, and so that fomenters of strikes may know what to expect. Britain will need to stand more solid than the rock before the laurel crown of victory is won. Zero hour may not only be postponed but also rendered vastly more perilous if such discord is countenanced within Democracy’s ranks.