Mr. Ben Tillett who, on Wednesday week, crossed to- Antwerp
to advise the dockers of that port how to carry on their struggle for better conditions of labour, was on Friday week arrested by the police, and after some hours of detention committed to prison without a trial or even a formal charge, kept in a filthy cell till late on the Saturday, and then conducted to the British steamer and sent home, without explanation or apology, at least if his own account. of the proceedings, published in the Daily Chronicle of last. Monday, is to be trusted as accurate. He was warned by the police on landing that be would not be suffered to address any public meeting, and he declares that he not only did not address any, but assured the police beforehand that he did not intend so to do. He twice met the delegates of the Antwerp dockers in a private room, and discussed with them their best tactics. And when the dockers would have interfered forcibly with his arrest by the police, he persuaded them to desist from that. design. During his imprisonment he was forced to wear the prison " cowl " to prevent his being recognised by any one he met, and was, so far at least as concerns his imprisonment. and the prison rules, treated like a convicted criminal, though, according to him, uncharged, untried, and uncondemned. This is very high-handed conduct on the part of the Belgian Minister of Justice, by whom, as Mr. Tillett says, the whole proceeding was directly ordered and we trust that Lord Salisbury will at once exact an explanation, and, should no justification of so arbitrary a procedure be forthcoming, an indemnity for so illegal a violation of the rights of a British subject.
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