Ray Physick mentions how the 1911 transport strike halted all business in Liverpool
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 22nd July 2011 by Liam Physick
Ray Physick describes how effective the strike was in paralysing Liverpool business. He cites a letter to Winston Churchill from the Liverpool Conservative MP William Walker, complaining that no goods could be delivered and how the police could not cope: Bamfords was finding it impossible to import food into Liverpool, according to Walker. Ray also notes how the fact that Liverpool was the country’s number one port meant the strike automatically affected the rest of Britain as well
Interviewee: Ray Physick
Interviewee Gender: Male
Interview Transcript
Ray: This is William Walker MP, he was a Liverpool MP, writing to Mr. Winston Churchill, who was Home Secretary at . . .
Alan: Was he a Liberal?
Ray: He’s a Liverpool MP.
Alan: Liberal?
Ray: No, no, he’s Tory.
Alan: Tory?
Ray: Yeah, and he wrote to Churchill, who was Home Secretary at the time – that’s important, to remember, that Churchill was Home Secretary, and his whole business, business in Liverpool . . . suspended – no goods of any sort can be delivered and no police, you know, protection available. So what he’s saying is even the police can’t, sort of, cope, really, with the wave of, sort of, strike, that’s actually happened, and this company, sort of, Bamfords, which was once a famous Liverpool, sort of, company, who used to import meat and goods into the docks are saying that, as for sending one ounce of food outside Liverpool, it’s just impossible, it’s just not, sort of, doable. So Liverpool wasn’t, you know, Liverpool was the most important port in the country where, export, and imports, so in effect the strikes in the docks and transport was effecting the whole, sort of, country, and I think that’s important to grasp, you know, the backdrop to the strikes that happened throughout the summer of 1911.
Categorised under: Work & Industry
Comments