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The General Strike Extracts
This page contains many of the quotations from the programme. It can be printed out as a guide for students watching the programme, or copied into a word processor or other application to provide an additional resource. Time codes refer to the points in the programme where the quotations appear.
0.40 Illustrated London News
28 June 1919
0.50 Illustrated London News
28 June 1919
1.01 Illustrated London News
28 June 1919
1.21 The People
5 January 1919
1.25 Illustrated London News
28 June 1919
1.36 Punch
28 May 1919
HONOUR SATISFIED
1.55 The People
29 June 1919The excitement was tense in the extreme, as, with trembling hand, the German minister ... took the pen and placed his signature to paper. Everyone felt the tremendous significance of the moment. Not a word was spoken, and the fall of a pin could be heard in the famous gallery. There was just the rustle of shutters of the cameras of the press photographers to be noticed.
2.18 Daily Mail
30 June 1919The little figures in black are going out with bent backs. The German Empire is dead.
2.28 Daily Chronicle
30 June 1919PEACE SIGNED! SUBMISSION OF GERMANY AT 3.14PM Peace has been signed, and the long drawn out conflict with Germany is over ...
2.38 The People
29 June 1919HISTORIC PEACE CEREMONY
2.44 The Times
24 June 1919The Germans have given in ... They writhe at the obligation imposed on them to confess their guilt ... Some of the conditions, they affirm, are designed to deprive the German people of its honour ... They thought little of the honour of the nations whose territories they defiled with their barbarous and inhuman warfare for more than three awful years.
3.13 Daily Chronicle
30 June 1919LONDON'S JOY SCENES MULTITUDES OF CHEERING, SINGING PEOPLE HOLD HIGH CARNIVAL ALL CLASSES COMBINE TO CELEBRATE There were great scenes outside Buckingham Palace, where all day Londoners flocked in their thousands to cheer the King and Queen ... The West-end was naturally the objective of all who felt the need of releasing pent-up feelings of enthusiasm, and there were carnival scenes everywhere, but no rowdiness, only boisterous merriment and noise.
3.45 Le Figaro
29 June 1919LA SIGNATURE DE LA PAIX
3.47 The Star
24 June 1919PARIS GOES WILD WITH JOY Paris went wild with joy last night when news of the Germans' unconditional climb-down arrived, and expressed its feelings in the traditional way - flags, processions, gun firing, illuminations, cheering.
4.09 The People
11 May 1919GERMANY'S DEATH SENTENCE
4.14 Daily Herald
10 May 1919GERMANY IN MOURNING All Public Amusements Suspended by Government Proclamation
4.19 The People
11 May 1919Unspeakable Grief of People caused by Peace Terms
5.19 Deutsche Zietung, reprinted in the Daily Chronicle
30 June 1919THE TREATY IS ONLY A SCRAP OF PAPER! We will seek vengeance for the shame of 1919.
5.25 Vorwarts, reprinted in the Daily Chronicle
30 June 1919... the Treaty does not create a lasting and final order of things in the world. The Treaty is full of injustices, brutalities and exploitations.
5.42 Punch
19 February 1919
German Criminal to Allied Police: Here, I say, stop! You're hurting me! (Aside: If I only whine enough I may be able to wriggle out of this yet.)
6.18 The People
23 March 1919
6.25 The People
25 May 1919Terms of Treaty Better Than Germany Deserves WAR MAKERS MUST BE MADE TO SUFFER Germany's chickens are coming home to roost, and she is making no end of a song about it. That was expected, but it will not help her much ... If Germany had her deserts, indeed, there would be no Germany left to bear any burden at all; she would be wiped off the map of Europe ... Stern justice would demand for Germany a punishment 10 times harder than any she will have to bear ... The feeling in this country is not that Germany is being too hardly dealt by, but that she is being let off too lightly ...
7.04 Daily Mail
30 June 1919PEACE WITH VIGILANCE ... though we have paralysed Germany afield, afloat and in the air, we have not annihilated her inherent power for evil. Germany is still a menace.
7.39 Daily Herald
8 May 1919THE PEACE THAT IS NO PEACE
7.53 Daily Herald
8 May 1919WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE We have a League of Nations have we? It is in practice a League of Allies ... Its provisions ... contain no recognition of the brotherhood of man, the spiritual equality of one with another, the equal rights of all.
8.19 Daily Herald
17 May 1919PEACE AND FUTURE CANON FODDER The Tiger: Curious! I seem to hear a child weeping!
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