I have always contended that they acted in what, in their judgment, were the best interests of the education of the children; but I have always contended, and do to-day, that they allowed themselves to be biassed by the political prejudice of one or two of the Managers, and that was what I set myself out to fight. My first effort on the Council was to move that the Education Committee be requested to hold a public inquiry. On this being put to the vote only my colleague and I voted for the motion. My next effort on the teachers' behalf was to move that the Education Committee be asked to reinstate the teachers for the period of the war, in order that peace and concord might prevail in the village. On this occasion I warned the Council that unless something in the direction of peace was done, the whole great Trade Union movement would take the matter up, and then they would probably have another school built. My warning, however, was unheeded and the resolution was lost. This time I received a little more support, and Mr. W. B. Taylor, Mr. Coe, Mr. Day and Mr. Pollard voted with me. This brought public sympathy to the teachers. Many of the Trade Union leaders took the matter up, a subscription list was opened, hundreds of pounds were subscribed, a new school was built, which is called the Burston Strike School, and it stands there as a monument of what the subscribers believed to be a great fight for religious and political freedom. I have never regretted the part I took in this great fight. I am, however, satisfied that had the County Council taken my advice at the time most of this unpleasantness might have been avoided. CHAPTER XVI THE GREAT WAR On August 4, 1914, the Great War commenced and, as stated, I came to the conclusion, like most of the other Labour leaders, that according to the information I had at my disposal we had no other alternative but to enter the war. I felt that it was a struggle for our very existence; further, that we were fighting to overcome one of the greatest curses to humanity, namely the wicked spirit of militarism. I therefore decided to put what appeared to me at the time the nation's interest before any other consideration. I spoke at a good many recruiting meetings in the early stages of the war. So far did I carry my patriotism that some of my friends began to be rather nervous about me for fear I should carry it too far, but they need not have been, for I never deviated one iota in my views on the Labour questions nor was there any fear that I should ever leave the cause to which I had devoted all my life. I took, however, the view that it would be the poor that would be the first to suffer, should we be defeated or should the enemy succeed in starving us, as the following letter I wrote to the women of the country will testify. It appeared in the _Eastern Daily Press_:--