^{page 202 note 1} Trades councils are, and were, local organisations to which are affiliated branches of trade unions, and occasionally other working class bodies. In 1914 there were nearly 400 such in the British Isles, and until the 1918 Labour Party Constitution, they were nearly always of greater importance locally than similar organisations devoted to purely electoral matters.

^{page 204 note 1} Clydebank T & LC 1913 AR, p. 20. The following abbreviations will be used in these footnotes. T & LC is Trades and Labour Council, and TC is Trades Council, terms which are largely interchangable in this period. LP is Labour Party and LRC, Labour Representative Committee, which also often refers to a very similar body. AR is Annual Report, for the period up to 31st December in the year given, otherwise the year up to the end of the month specified, or up to the date if one is given. YB is Year Book, which usually contains the Annual Report of the previous year. These are mainly printed booklets, of which I have given the pagination if there is any, though sometimes they are duplicated or even simply typed. There are important collections of these reports at the Labour Research Department (LRD) and at the library of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), both institutions which I must thank for giving me access to them. The LRD also kindly gave me access to what remains of the survey of trades councils undertaken by the organisation in 1917, and the abbreviation LRD Reply refers to the filled, in circulars that were sent out to local organisations at that time.

^{page 204 note 2} Sheffield T & LC Delegate Meeting Minutes, 24th September 1912, and Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 25th September, 1912: here the motion itself did not refer to a strike though most of the speakers seemed to assume that it implied that, including one who prophesied: “Let there be another war, and all questions of a strike would disappear from the workers' mind and give place to a jingo sentiment.” Bolton United TC Jubilee Souvenir 1866–1916 (Bolton 1916), p. xvii; Blackpool TC 75th Anniversary History Report and Directory (Blackpool 1966), p. 21; Belfast Trades Union Council 1851–1951. A Short History (Belfast, 1951), p. 14.

^{page 205 note 1} Birmingham TC Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Executive Committee and the Political Section, 5th August 1914; Bennett, A.Oldham Trades and Labour Centenary 1867–1967 (Oldham, 1967)Google Scholar (no pagination); Nottingham TC July 1914 AR, p. 6.

^{page 205 note 2} In Reading, Leicester and Portsmouth there was such representation, and the work of the committee was constantly being discussed in Oxford. (Reading T & LC March 1909 AR; Leicester TC 1910 YB, p. 10; Portsmouth T & LC 1912 AR, pp. 22, 50; Oxford TC Delegate Meeting Minutes, 21st January and 21st December 1907, 3rd November 1909, and 26th October 1910); W. A. Orton Labour in Transition. A Study in British Industrial History since 1914 (1921), p. 13. (The place of publication of books and pamphlets is London unless otherwise stated.)

^{page 205 note 3} Memorandum on Steps taken for the Prevention and Relief of Distress Due to the War [Parliamentary Papers (hereafter PP) 1914, LXXI, Cd 7603], p. 4.

^{page 206 note 1} WEWNC, Report August 1914 to March 1916 (1916), p. 4; Liverpool LRC 1914 AR, p. 7; Peterborough TC, Diamond Jubilee 1899–1959 (Peterborough 1959), p. 15; on Camberwell see S., and Webb, B., Reports and Papers on the Relief of Distress, Volume 1 [British Library of Economic and Political Science Miscellaneous Collection, 242] (hereafter R & P), pp. 197–204.Google Scholar In Bethnal Green eight trade union representatives out of sixty were “not considered enough” (Ibid., pp. 183–95).

^{page 207 note 1} MacKinven, H., Edinburgh and District Trades Council Centenary 1895–1959 (Edinburgh, 1959), p. 53;Google Scholar Huddersfield Associated T & LC August 1915 AR, p. 4; Grimsby T & LC 1915 YB, pp. 10, 29.

^{page 207 note 2} Wolverhampton T & LC 1915 YB, p. 12; Federationist, January 1915; Cole, G.D.H., Labour in Wartime (1915), p. 86Google Scholar; The Syndicalist, July 1914; R & P, pp. 183–95.

^{page 208 note 1} WEWNC Minutes, 11th September 1914 (these are printed); Federationist, February and March 1914; Fulham Labour Council January 1917 AR.

^{page 208 note 2} WEWNC, The War Emergency; Suggestions for Labour Members on Local Committees (1914) (written by Webb); R & P, p. 191. The other quotations are from The Nation, 31st October 1914, p. 143, and G. D. H. Cole, op. cit., pp. 91–2.

^{page 208 note 3} Motherwell United TC October 1914 AR, p. 11; WEWNC Minutes, 14th January 1915.

^{page 209 note 1} On the work of the committees during 1915 and 1916 see: Leicester TC 1916 YB, p. 48; Great Harwood T & LC February 1916 AR, p. 6; Cowes and East Cowes T & LC March 1916 AR; Hammersmith Labour Council March 1916 AR. See also A. Marwick, The Deluge. British Society during the First World War (1967 edition), p. 213.

^{page 209 note 2} Herald, 20th March 1915; Oldham T & LC 1914 AR, p. 9; Great Harwood T & LC February 1916 AR, p. 5; Coventry TC 1914 AR, p. 6; Federationist, February and May 1915, and June 1916.

^{page 210 note 1} Local Government Board, Report on Special Work Arising out of the War [PP 1914–16, XXV, Cd 7763], p. 14; First Report of the Departmental Committee… to consider … the Reception and Employment of Belgian Refugees [PP 1914–6, VII, Cd 7750], pp. 35–6; Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Departmental Committee [Id., Cd 7779], pp. 33, 86, 118; Newport TC 1915 AR, p. 2; Oxford TC Delegate Meeting Minutes, 12th January 1915; Wrexham T & LC 1914 AR, p. 2.

^{page 210 note 2} A long and detailed catalogue to this effect will be found in Bradford T & LC 1911 YB, p. 7.

^{page 210 note 3} York TC 1911 YB, p. 7.

^{page 211 note 1} Daily Citizen, 2nd October 1914. For the various local discussions and conferences see Federationist, September, November and December 1914; G. D. H. Cole, op. cit., pp. 107 and 129; WEWNC Minutes, 9th November 1914; and Bradford T & LC 1915 YB, p. 13.

^{page 211 note 2} Devine, E. T. and Brandt, L., Disabled Soldiers and Sailors Pensions and Training (New York, 1919), pp. 102, 121, 128–37.Google Scholar Oldham T & LC 1916, pp. 41–4 gives a detailed summary of the Act, and of the policy of the labour movement regarding it.

^{page 212 note 1} Milne-Bailey, W., Trade Union Documents (1929), p. 473Google Scholar, reproducing a “Circular issued to Counties, County Boroughs etc., by the Statutory Committee on War Pensions, 19th February, 1916”.

^{page 212 note 2} Edinburgh TC March 1917 AR; Devine and Brandt, op. cit., p. 136; Leicester TC 1917 YB, pp. 3 and 50–1.

^{page 213 note 1} TUC 1916 Report, pp. 118–26.

^{page 213 note 2} Devine and Brandt, op. cit., p. 156.

^{page 213 note 3} Federationist, October 1917; Northampton TC June 1916 AR, p. 4; July 1917 to December 1918 AR, p. 2; and LRC 1916 AR, pp. 4–5.

^{page 214 note 1} Liverpool TC March 1918 AR, p. 36; Dewsbury TC 1916 AR; Hampstead T & LC March 1917 AR; Finchley TC 1919 AR, p. 7.

^{page 214 note 2} Edinburgh Review, January 1917, p. 156, on “The Work of the Soldiers and Sailors Family Associations”.

^{page 215 note 1} Details of the work of Local Employment Committees are to be found in the LRD Monthly Circular, July 1917, and in N.B. Dearle, Dictionary of Official War-time Organisations (1928), p. 135. On Finchley see the 1919 TC AR, pp. 7–8. In Nottingham there were twelve trade union representatives (TC 1918 AR, p. 26), and in Bolton three (TC 1917 AR, p. 5).

^{page 215 note 2} On this much of what follows see Thomis, M. I., The Labour Movement in Great Britain and Compulsory Military Service (London University MA thesis, 1959).Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 1} Liverpool TC March 1914 AR, p. 4. Plymouth TC Half Yearly Report January to July 1913, describes a series of meetings held locally, and the Oxford TC Minutes, 26th January 1910 and 5th June 1913, refer to meetings on the matter to which members were delegated.

^{page 216 note 2} Federationist, July and September 1915.

^{page 217 note 1} Thomis, op. cit., p. 88.

^{page 217 note 2} Northampton TC 26th June AR, p. 8; June 1916 AR, pp. 10 and 12; Birmingham TC 1915 AR, p. 5; Carlisle T & LC February 1916 AR, pp. 7–8; Labour Leader, 4th November 1915; Bünger, S., Die sozialistische Antikriegsbewegung in Grossbritannien 1914–1917 (Berlin 1967), p. 94.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 1} TUC 1915 Report, pp. 79–92; Thomis, op. cit., pp. 154, 166, 183, 190 and 199.

^{page 218 note 2} Labour Party 1916 Report, p. 124; Thomis, p. 220.

^{page 219 note 1} McShane, H., Glasgow District Trades Council, Centenary Brochure 1858– 1958 (Glasgow, 1958), pp. 26–7Google Scholar; Federationist, March 1916. On the Liverpool events see Maddock, S., The Liverpool Trades Council and Politics 1878–1918 (Liverpool University MA thesis, 1959), pp. 182–7Google Scholar, Liverpool TC March 1916 AR, pp. 4–5, and the printed letter about the matter from the LRC dated 28th January 1916, of which there is a copy in the LRD collection. The Colchester TC leaflet is also in the LRD collection, and the Federationist, June 1917, gives the Reading motion.

^{page 219 note 2} The quotation is in Rae, J. M., The Development of Official Treatment of Objectors to Military Service (London University PhD thesis, 1965), p. 158. P. 160Google Scholar gives Rae's assessment of the work of the tribunals. He does not deny the main stories about the cruel treatment they meted out, but considers that such things were untypical.

^{page 219 note 3} Ibid, pp. 168 and 160–5.

^{page 220 note 1} Graham, J. M., Conscription and Conscience (1922), p. 65;Google Scholar Oxford T & LC Minutes, 24th November 1915 and 23rd February 1916; Federationist, June 1916; Challenor, W., The Social and Economic Development of Crewe 1780–1923 (Manchester, 1950), p. 277.Google Scholar

^{page 220 note 2} For complaints on this score see Federationist, June and July 1916. In Aylesbury there were protests against the conscripton of a union official who was “blind in one eye, and partially blind in the other and had a wife and eleven children to support” (E. Cheshire, 25 Years of Progress: History of the Aylesbury and District Trades Council (Aylesbury, 1936), pp. 21–2).

^{page 220 note 3} Leeds Mercury, 21st, 24th and 28th March 1916; Glasgow Herald, 16th March 1916.

^{page 221 note 1} On the whole matter see Bowley, A. L., Prices and Wages in the United Kingdom 1914–1920 (Oxford 1921)Google Scholar, and Litman, S., Prices and Price Control in Great Britain and United States during the World War (New York, 1920).Google Scholar

^{page 221 note 2} Bradford T & LC 1915 YB, pp. 9 and 11; Federationist, November 1914 and February 1915; Burnley T & LC Delegate Meeting Agenda for 2nd February 1915 (LRD Collection).

^{page 221 note 3} The trades councils constantly referred to the various editions of the Memorandum on the Increased Cost of Living during the War, issued by the WEWNC. For the local meetings see Cole, op. cit., pp. 115–133, the WEWNC Minutes, and

^{page 222 note 1} The reports are in PP 1917–8, XII. The quotation from the West Midlands Report (Cd 8665) is on p. 2.

^{page 222 note 2} Smillie, R., My Life for Labour (1925), pp. 174–80Google Scholar; Beveridge, W. H., British Food Control (1928), pp. 51–8Google Scholar (the proportions of representation are calculated from figures that appear there); S. Litman, op. cit., pp. 129–38; Coller, F., A State Trading Adventure (Oxford, 1925), p. 77Google Scholar; N. B. Dearle, op. cit., p. 95.

^{page 222 note 3} Cotton Factory Times, 5th October 1917. A similar complaint about the War Pensions Committees was discussed by the federation at the meeting reported in the same paper on 6th July 1917.

^{page 223 note 1} Ibid., 7th September 1917; H. R. Williams, History of the Plymouth and District Trades Council from 1892 to 1952 (Plymouth, 1952), p. 16; Leicester LP 1917 AR, p. 9; Luton TC, Thirty Years of Progress. Short History of the Trade Union Movement in Luton and District (Luton 1941), p. 14.

^{page 223 note 2} Ayr Labour Council 1917 AR, p. 5; E. Cheshire, op. cit., p. 20; Bather, L., A History of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council (Manchester University PhD thesis, 1956), p. 136.Google Scholar

^{page 223 note 3} W. H. Beveridge, op. cit., pp. 196 and 224; Pollard, S., The Development of the British Economy 1914–1967 (1969), p. 52.Google Scholar

^{page 224 note 1} Clemesha, H. W., Food Control in the North West Division (Manchester 1922), pp. 7 and 22.Google Scholar

^{page 224 note 2} Nottingham TC June 1918 AR, p. 4 The Hereford TC Delegate Meeting Agenda for the 5th May 1918 (in the LRD collection) indicated the detail in which these things were discussed. It refers to “Supplementary, Invalid and Overtime Rates; Butter and Margarine Distribution; Registered Transfers; and other matters affecting the work of the Food Control Committee”.

^{page 224 note 3} Gallacher, W., Revolt in the Clyde. An Autobiography (1936), pp. 72–5Google Scholar describes how the preliminary meeting of the local “food economy committee” at Paisley was abandoned because of the comments of the Trades Council representatives. Marwick, op. cit., pp. 207–8 describes the whole of the somewhat bizarre episode of “food economy”.

^{page 224 note 4} On this see Beveridge, op. cit., p. 235. For examples of trades council participation see Nottingham TC June 1918 AR, p. 4; Liverpool TC March 1918 AR, p. 24.

^{page 224 note 5} Beveridge, p. 289, and Dearle, p. 271. The quotations are from Collier op. cit., pp. 229–32.

^{page 225 note 1} Middlesborough T & LC 1916 AR, p. 3; Northampton TC 26th June AR, pp. 1–2; Newport TC 1916 AR, p. 10.

^{page 226 note 1} Hereford TC, LRD Reply, 6th June 1918; Liverpool TC March 1918 AR, pp. 23 and 25.

^{page 226 note 2} Federationist, September 1915 and May 1916.

^{page 226 note 3} The origin of this story is perhaps the account of the passing of the Act in W. Gallacher, op. cit., pp. 52–8.

^{page 227 note 1} On Camberwell, R & P, p. 205. On Woolwich see Woolwich Pioneer, 24th June 1924. On Coventry the TC 1915 AR, p. 7. Local agitations are frequently described in the Federationist during 1915, and the Manchester T & LC in the same year issued a pamphlet called Report on the Increase of House Rents in Manchester and Salford since the Commencement of the War… On activities after the passing of the Act on see Bennet, op. cit., and material relating to tenants meetings and trades council meetings in Oldham in the LRD collection. The WEWNC leaflet, How the Rent and Mortgage Act protects Tenents was widely distributed, though some local bodies wrote their own versions.

^{page 227 note 2} Hartlepools Labour League 1917 AR; Hull TC, TUC Souvenir for 1924, p. 6.

^{page 228 note 1} Birkenhead TC March 1916 AR, p. 3; Plymouth TC 1915 AR, p. 5; Coventry TC printed letter dated 20th November 1916 in the LRD collection.

^{page 228 note 2} Rotherham T & LC 1914 AR, p. 4; Northampton TC June 1917 AR, pp. 19 and 22.

^{page 229 note 1} The Liverpool TC LRC duplicated circular of November 1918 is in the LRD collection; Chatham T & LC June 1917 AR.

^{page 229 note 2} Wolfe, H., Labour Supply and Regulation (Oxford 1923), p. 130.Google Scholar

^{page 229 note 3} Mendelson, J., Owen, W., Pollard, S. and Thornes, V., The Sheffield Trades and Labour Council 1858–1958 (Sheffield 1958), p. 67Google Scholar describes the development of very radical attitudes in the Trades Council quite separately from the development of the shop stewards' movement. On Glasgow see Kendall, W., The Revolutionary Movement in Britain 1900–21 (1969), p. 140.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 1} Gallacher, W. and Paton, J., Toward Industrial Democracy–A Memorandum on Workshop Control (Paisley, 1918)Google Scholar; Federationist, April 1915; Sunderland T & LC & LRC 1916 AR; T. Drinkwater, L., A History of the Trade Unions and the Labour Party in Liverpool 1911 to the Great Strike (Liverpool University B.A. thesis 1940), p. 33.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 2} Birmingham TC 1918 AR, p. 5; Liverpool TC March 1918 AR, pp. 31–4.

^{page 230 note 3} Manchester T & LC 1917 AR, p. 3 describes a local meeting held by the Trades and Labour Council to celebrate the March Revolution, at which apparently there was also considerable enthusiasm for the memory of James Connolly, the recently martyred Irish revolutionary leader (Bünger, op. cit., p. 153).

^{page 231 note 1} Council of Workmen's and Soldiers Delegates, What Happened at Leeds (1917); Drinkwater op. cit., p. 36; Chatham T & LC June 1917 AR.

^{page 231 note 2} Hanak, H. H., “The Union of Democratic Control during the First World War”, in: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 11 1963, pp. 177–8Google Scholar; Swanwick, H. N., Builders of Peace. Being Ten Years History of the Union of Democratic Control (1924), p. 51Google Scholar; Orton, op. cit., p. 110.

^{page 231 note 3} Bradford T & LC 1918 YB, p. 5; Winkler, H.The League of Nations Movement in Great Britain 1914–1919 (New Brunswick 1952), p. 198.Google Scholar

^{page 231 note 4} Nottingham TC July 1918, AR, p. 3. The Liverpool TC secretary considered that President Wilson was somebody “to whom mankind owes so much for his far-sighted policy and his earnest desire to establish a real and lasting peace” (March 1919 AR, p. 4).

^{page 232 note 1} Wolverhampton T & LC 1915 YB, p. 18; Chatham T & LC June 1917 AR; Huddersfield T & LC February 1916 AR, p. 6; Hyde T & LC March 1915 AR, and similar anticipations in Great Harwood T & LC February 1916 AR, p. 6.