Free Never Give In! by Winston Churchill Page A

civilisation has been the work of aristocracies.’ Why, it would be much more true to say the upkeep of the aristocracy has been the hard work of all civilisations. – ( Loud cheers and ‘ Say it again. ’) Nearly all great ideas and the energy by which all the great services by which mankind has been benefited have come from the mass of the people.
    ‘FOR SOLDIERS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE WOULD BE A CATASTROPHE’
    7 February 1911
    House of Commons
    By now Churchill was Home Secretary and the outbreak of violence and destruction of property in the mining valleys of South Wales, as a result of the miners ’ strike, led to his being criticised by the Conservatives for not deploying troops sufficiently quickly, and by the Socialists for using excessive force. Arthur Balfour, Leader of the Opposition, led the Conservative attack on the Home Secretary’s handling of the crisis.
    I was yesterday the subject of attack from no less a person than the Leader of the Opposition, and he has attacked me, not for the excessive amount of force employed, but for not employing sufficient force – for not sending military instead of police – for not sending military soon enough, and the right hon. Gentleman devoted so much time in the important speech which he delivered at the beginning of this Session to this subject that I am really surprised that in the course of this Debate, though I waited to give full opportunity for it, no Member of the Opposition has risen to support the charges which were made against the Government and the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. Let me just read to the House what the right hon. Gentleman says. He said;
Many of these deplorable occurrences might have been avoided had he not at a critical moment refused to carry out decisively and effectively the measures which he contemplated. Had he not held back the military and not shown some doubt and hesitation at a critical moment, much destruction of property, many unhappy incidents, and many circumstances which all, whatever their opinions, must look upon as a great blot on the procedure of civilised society, might have been wholly avoided.
    That is, I am sure, a very serious charge. . . .
    I should like to point out to the House upon this point that the forces which the Government sent at the request of the Chief Constable and the local authorities in the Rhondda Valley were in every respect more suitable to the work which they were likely to have to do than the force of infantry which had been asked for in the morning. Policemen accustomed to handle crowds are from every point of view more effective in these matters than soldiers, especially infantry, and we were sending as many foot constables and a considerable number of mounted constables as well in place of the two companies of infantry which had been asked for, and we were sending in addition, to be in support, two squadrons of cavalry. Therefore, no charge could be made against the Government that adequate forces were not sent to the scene, or that suitable forces were not sent to the scene. On the contrary, the forces sent were larger and more suitable than those which were asked for. . . .
    Whatever we were guilty of, there was no vacillation. Obstinacy perhaps, but vacillation, no. The decision was never departed from to use the police as a cover and shield for the military. What I had in my mind as the principal subject of apprehension was the idea of the arrival in the night of a body of soldiers hurriedly sent by train from a long distance, disembarking under conditions of excitement at a station and moved out of the station into direct collision with an angry mob, who were not at all accustomed to see the soldiers and were perhaps not at all acquainted with the weapons they carried or with the limitations attendant upon military action. That I was resolved to guard against, if it were possible to do so, while maintaining law and order. . . .
    The mining population of South Wales are, as the