LETTER FROM ENGLAND
Economic Crisis and Social Crisis

From May 1924 to May 1925, Great Britain's exports contracted by more than 6 million pounds.
All key industries were affected. Coal mining lost 2 million pounds; metallurgy, 1.5 million; cloth mills, 1.5 million; cotton mills, 1 million.
Imports also fell by nearly 18 million, especially in raw materials and food products. This means that Great Britain's production capacity is strained and the country must tighten its belt.
The railways, carrying fewer goods, generate fewer profits. And ships, bringing in less and carrying less, bring in less. All of this explains the unemployment.

Great Britain has a population of 42 million. Of this number, 1,290,000 are unemployed. Every thirty-third person passing through is unemployed.
The crush of unemployed has increased by a quarter of a million in twelve months, by 100,000 in the last two weeks. 100,000!
The sleepy processing industries are absorbing less of their essential fuel, coal. There are 160,000 miners on the pitheads, asking in vain to go back down.
But that's still not enough. On June 30th, the coal mine owners will denounce the current labor contract. They will toil eight hours instead of seven. And at reduced pay. If production exceeds needs, more miners will be laid off.
In reality, as things stand, all production is overproduction. Inventories are piling up. Business leaders dare not take responsibility for a lockout. They would prefer, through their intransigence, to push the miners to strike.
Thus, those still working today may have to fold their arms tomorrow. This consideration and class solidarity led them, last Sunday, to join en masse the demonstrations of the unemployed in thirty provincial industrial cities.

And in London.
Trafalgar Square. The vast semicircular square. In the middle of the arch, Nelson's Column, with its enormous base and the four stone lions lying at the four corners.
The chord of the semicircle: a retaining wall. Above, the National Gallery. On either side, a ramp that rises gently towards the museum, and streets coming from all directions. A stone's throw away, Piccadilly, and the Strand, and the government departments, and St. James's, the royal palace. Three steps away, the Houses of Parliament. Crowded. Crowds in the square, crowds on the ramps, crowds on the parapet at the back, and even on the base of the column, three sides of which form a triple platform at eye level. The pigeons, chased from the square, have perched on the pediment and dome of the National Gallery and watch.
Constantly, from all sides, other demonstrators emerge in procession behind the clique: drums, bass drum, and fifes.
Meanwhile, on the pedestal, an orator strides back and forth, gestures wildly, shouts, thunders, and lets out such roars that the pigeons up there are startled, and one wonders if the old popular lion, dozing at the corner of the column, has not just awakened with a start.
From the peristyle of the museum, one sees only heads and more heads, countless and as thick as poppy seeds. Where have I ever seen so many heads?...
And, always, the shrill notes of the fifes, and the roll of the drum, and the pounding of the bass drum. And more red flags and banners, large and heavy, embroidered and painted, decorated with stories, illuminated, laden with inscriptions and emblems, suspended by a transverse pole at the end of two uprights, and some so enormous and heavy that they are dragged upright on two wheels.
But where have I ever seen so many heads, flags, and banners? In what photos?...
Against the column, overlooking this monstrous meeting, a child unrolls a placard that hides him entirely: Long life to Soviet-Russia! Long life to Soviet Russia!
The speaker paces back and forth, gesticulates, and swells his voice: Industry is unemployed, or almost. And that is why we, the unemployed, are completely unemployed. And that is why you, the workers, will be unemployed tomorrow.

Our vast British Empire is nothing more than a precarious outlet, since manufacturing has begun everywhere in this Empire.
"Western and Central Europe are saturated or too poor."
"We need Russia, immense, uncultivated Russia. There, a hundred million human beings are waiting to give us wheat and oil, and their bodies to clothe, their bodies to feed, and their arms to equip with tools..." Standing on one of the lions, a worker raises his cap three times; and three times, the crowd cheers.
Russia: A strange word-ferment. None of those gathered there hears it without their heart swelling with hope.
He convinces himself more and more each day that the bread he lacks here can come from this distant, mysterious, and forbidden land. This is his vital lie. Don't tell him he's a communist, that he's a Bolshevik. He would get angry. He's a trade unionist. Nothing more. Yet, he's leaning towards Bolshevism with a blind but fatal, hypnotized approach.

Just as there was a meeting on Sunday in Trafalgar Square, there were meetings in thirty major industrial cities across the country. A resolution was passed, urging the government to immediately resume negotiations with the Russian government, in order to renew commercial relations. And, at each of these meetings, the same...
This resolution was brought this morning by the representatives of the General Council of the Congress of Trades Unions to Mr. Baldwin. The Prime Minister received them, flanked by Mr. Chamberlain, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Labor, and the Minister of Commerce.
Will the government give in? It's hard to resist the unanimous will of some ten million workers. And yet, if he complies, if England negotiates with the Soviets, if she sends money and machines, it will be arming them against herself. And against us.

Marcuse

THE EVENTS IN CHINA
A Protest from France

Canton, June 27. Following last Tuesday's shooting, the French consul sent a note to the civil governor stating, in part:
The French government will have to request compensation for the murder of a Frenchman and for the damage caused to property; but, for the present, there is no question of compensation. The question is whether the Chinese authorities approve or disapprove of the acts committed, whether they will endeavor to stop the disorder, or whether they will grant protection to the rioters.
The decision of the Chinese authorities is of great importance. As the representative of a peace-loving country wishing to avoid any bloodshed, I will not refuse to consider, provided it is compatible with the honor of France, any proposal for a peaceful settlement. However, if further attacks occur, we will be obliged, however regretfully, to resort to all means at our disposal. I implore the governor and the civil authorities, concluded the French consul, to make every effort to ensure peace and tranquility. As far as is known, no response to the above note has yet been received.

A seaplane crashes in a street in Alicante

Madrid, June 27. Yesterday, a seaplane from Algiers, piloted by pilot Mongat and with telegraph operator Salvateur on board, crashed with a tremendous noise onto the Boulevard de l'Esplanade, after striking a lightning rod and then the dome of a nearby building. It then became entangled in the tramway cables, which it severed, and finally crashed onto the pavement. The bodies of the pilots were pulled completely charred from the wreckage of the plane.
A resident who was at his window when the seaplane crashed was seriously injured by the tail of the aircraft.

The French Mandate for Togoland

Geneva, June 27. The League of Nations Mandates Commission continued today, June 27, in the presence of Mr. Duchêne and Mr. Bornecarrere, its examination of the French report on the administration of Togoland. The commission congratulated the representatives of the French administration on the way in which France is exercising its mandate in Togo, as well as on the excellent results obtained.