The first engagement of the ill-advised and ill-planned campaign was begun at Mount Pleasant Parcel Depot on the morning of July 9. There the Union men made an onslaught on the new-comers, and after a short sharp struggle turned them out of the place. It was but a momentary victory, however, for which they were to pay dearly by the suspension and dismissal of a large number during the next few hours. The news of the outburst at Mount Pleasant heightened the excitement among the men at the Chief Office, and the discovery that a number of relief men had been drafted in intensified the feeling. A telegram was sent by the postmen to Mr. Raikes, stating their intention to suspend work until the interlopers were dismissed. They were, however, persuaded to proceed with their duties pending a reply. No reply being forthcoming, the demand for the dismissal of the objectionable relief men and the withdrawal of the police was repeated by means of several deputations to the Controller, but the demand was not acceded to. Meanwhile, as it was generally understood that the executive of the Postmen’s Union contemplated the madness of a strike, Clery and the Fawcett Association did all that was possible to bring their fellow-servants to a better understanding. Clery had called together about 150 of the postmen, and suggested that the Postmen’s Union should definitely abandon the strike policy which they had tacitly adopted in favour of some means of arbitration afterwards to be settled on, and a formal proposition embodying this suggestion was duly seconded, recommending that the executive should consider it. Clery’s motive in putting forward this idea was twofold: one, and the principal one, being an earnest desire to save the postmen from pursuing such a suicidal course as they contemplated; and the other to disabuse their minds that the letter-sorters intended to join with them. It had been circulated among them that Clery’s followers were falling away; that both Clery and Williams had failed to prevent the sorters from joining with them in large numbers. To more effectually dispose of such misstatements, a meeting of the sorters was on July 9th hurriedly called in the Foreign Branch, General Post-Office, and over a thousand men being present, a resolution was passed expressing sympathy with the just demands of the postmen, but entirely repudiating and deprecating their strike policy. A deputation of postmen were invited to be present, and they left to attend a meeting of the Postmen’s Union held at ten o’clock at Clerkenwell Green the same evening. Yet the same misstatement was persisted in, and the newspapers the next morning announced that Mr. Mahon informed his audience that, at a meeting of the sorting force held in the General Post-Office that evening, a resolution pledging those present to join with the postmen was unanimously carried.