he was deeply involved, was the organization of the so-called
" Triple Alliance " between the unions representing coal-miners,
transport workers, and railwaymen. When the war came, he
took his stand, with the bulk of the Labour leaders, on the
national and patriotic side; but, like many of them, deprecated
the introduction of compulsory service, until it should be clear
that the necessary men could be got in no other way. In Sept.
1915 he declared in Parliament that trade unionists were ab-
solutely against conscription, that to introduce it might provoke
revolution. Nearly every branch of his own railwaymen's
organization, he said, had not only passed resolutions against
the policy, but had threatened on its introduction to stop work.
There were many who questioned at the time the justice of his
estimate of the workmen's feelings; and, though he renewed
his vehement protest against the first Military Service bill in
Jan. 1916, and though the Labour party in conference condemned
the measure, there was no difficulty in applying it and no agita-
tion arose for its repeal. Even against the stronger measure of
the following April only nine Labour members were found to go
into the lobby on the second reading. Throughout the war
Mr. Thomas, while securing large advances of wages for the
railway servants, used his unique influence with them in com-
posing disputes and preventing any stoppage which should inter-
fere with national interests; and for this considerable service he
was made a privy councillor in 1917. It was a bitter blow to him
when in Sept. 1918 the rank and file disregarded an agreement
which the executive, of the National Union of Railwaymen had
come to with the Government for an advance of 55. for adults
and 2s.6d. for boys. In spite of this, there was a general strike
of railwaymen in S. Wales, and the disturbance spread partially
to London and elsewhere ; but the courts, on the application of
the Board of Trade, prohibited the Union from paying strike pay,
and the movement collapsed. In disgust at his advice being
disregarded, Mr. Thomas resigned the secretaryship of the
Union, but was eventually persuaded, on promises of better dis-
cipline, to resume office. He approved of the subsequent decision
of the Labour party to sever itself from the Coalition, and to
appeal to the electorate in Dec. 1918 for independent support,
announcing as his own battle-cry " No more war." He was
once more returned at the head of the poll for Derby, and by a
huge majority. After the war he became a more prominent
figure both in Parliament and in the national life. He made a
strong speech in support of the Labour amendment to the Ad-
dress in 1919, stating that he stood both against Bolshevists and
against profiteers. He called upon the Government to deal with



722



THOMPSON THORODDSEN



the reactionaries in Labour disputes as they would with Bol-
shevists, and upon the employers to recognize that the working
classes could no longer be treated by them as hewers of wood and
drawers of water. He welcomed both the bill establishing a
Ministry of Health and that establishing a Ministry of Trans-
port; but he warned the House of Commons not to expect
cheaper passenger fares and freight charges; the railwaymen
would not allow themselves to be sweated for the benefit of the
travelling public. But, once again, his real activity was outside.
In the disputes in March 1919, between the railwaymen and the
Government, he was the chief leader of the men, and at a mo-
ment of crisis he flew across to Paris to discuss the question with
Mr. Lloyd George, then in attendance at the Peace Conference.
The terms which he finally arranged with the Government,
involving an approximate addition of over 10,000,000 per
annum to the railway expenditure, included a standard week of
48 hours, and a standard wage for that week; for the fixing of
the new standard rates of wages negotiations were to be con-
tinued. In the last week of Sept. he suddenly announced that a
crisis had arisen in these negotiations, and after a futile confer-
ence with the Government on Sept. 25, a strike began without
further notice on Sept. 26. Neither the community nor the
Government was intimidated; and Mr. Thomas used his power
for peace, and for a settlement, after ten days, on terms not
materially different from what the men might have had at first.
His efforts for the men had already, it was calculated, amounted
to a permanent annual increase in the railway wage bill of
65,000,000, and an increase of 50% which in Aug. 1920 be-
came 75% in passenger fares, and more than 50% in goods
rates. In 1920 he and his executive were faced by the difficult
problem of the refusal of Irish railwaymen to handle munitions
of war; and the only solution he and they could suggest was that
the Government should cease to send such munitions and that
the Labour party should make an appeal to the Irish people a
solution which ministers, of course, could not accept. His own
policy for Ireland was the gift of Dominion Home Rule. During
this year he published a book When Labour Rules, in which he,
speaking, of course, only for himself, depicted the kind of policy
which Labour in power would favour -such as the right to work,
development of nationalization, better homes, shorter hours,
state endowment of motherhood, great extension of university
facilities and a national theatre and opera.

THOMPSON, SILVANUS PHILLIPS (1851-1916), English
physicist, was born at York June 19 1851, and educated at a
school in Yorkshire belonging to the Society of Friends, of which
body he was a lifelong member. He went later to the Royal
School of Mines, having previously received a B.A. at London
University when he was only eighteen. He obtained a B.Sc. from
London University in 1875 with high honours and a D.Sc. in
1878, when he became professor of experimental physics in Uni-
versity College, Bristol. There he began his lectures on electrical
science which brought him invitations to lecture all over the
United Kingdom and made him a power in both the scientific
and industrial worlds. In 1881 appeared his Elementary Lessons
in Electricity and Magnetism, twice reprinted in 1882 and 16
times in the ensuing 12 years. A new edition was called for even
as late as 1914. Two other courses of lectures were published
in volume form, Dynamo- Electric Machinery (1882), and The
Electro-magnet and Electromagnetic Mechanism (1891). By
that time he had removed to London, becoming professor of
Physics in the City and Guilds of London Technical College,
Finsbury, in 1885 and subsequently its principal. He was elected
a fellow of the "Royal Society in 1889. In his desire to bring
science home to the imperfectly educated he published anony-
mously Calculus made Easy by " F.R.S." (1910), written in
colloquial style. His deep interest in religion, which led to his
recognition in 1903 as a minister of the Society of Friends, in-
spired The Quest of Truth (1915) and a posthumous work A Not
Impossible Religion (1918). He also published biographies of
Reis, Faraday and Kelvin. He died in London June 12 1916.

See Silvanus Phillips Thompson, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., by his
wife and daughter (1920).



THOMSON, SIR JOSEPH JOHN (1856- ), British physicist,
was born near Manchester Dec. 18 1856 and was educated at
Owens College, Manchester, and subsequently at Trinity College, \
Cambridge, where in 1880 he graduated as second wrangler. In I
the same year he was elected a fellow of Trinity College, and |
became second Smith's prizeman. In 1883 he was appointed
lecturer in Trinity College, and in the following year Cavendish i
professor of experimental physics in the university of Cambridge, I
a position he occupied until his resignation in 1918. He developed i
a great research laboratory of experimental physics, attracting
numerous workers from many countries and colonies; advances
were made in the investigation of the conduction of electricity
through gases, in the determination of the charge and mass of the
electron and in the development of analysis by means of positive
rays. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1884, be-
came president of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1894,
president of Section A of the British Association in 1896, and
president of the Royal Society in 1915- In 1905 he held the
professorship of physics in the Royal Institution, London, in
addition to his Cambridge professorship. He was knighted in
1908 and awarded the O.M. in 1912. He was the recipient of
many British and foreign awards and honours, amongst these
being the Royal and Hughes medals of the Royal Society in 1894
and 1902 respectively, the Hodgkins medal of the Smithsonian
Institute of Washington in 1902, the Nobel Prize for physics in
1906, enrolment as honorary graduate of many universities,
and as honorary fellow of numerous American and continental
scientific academies. During the World War he presided over
several research committees and he assisted various Govern-
ment departments in an advisory capacity. In 1918 he was
appointed master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and in the
following year was elected to a newly established professorship
of physics in the Cavendish Laboratory, where he continued to
prosecute his researches. In addition to a large number of
publications in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and the
Philosophical Magazine, he has published A Treatise on Hie
Motion of Vortex Rings (1884); The Application of Dynamics to
Phvsics and Chemistry (1886); Recent Researches in Electricity
and Magnetism (1892); Elements of the Mathematical Theory of
Electricity and Magnetism (1895, 5th ed. 1921); The Discharge
of Electricity through Gases (1897); The Conduction of Electricity
through Gases (1903); and, with Prof. Poynting, a number of
text-books upon physics.

THORNE, WILL (1857- ), British Labour politician, was
born at Birmingham Oct. 8 1857. He started work at the age
of seven in a ropeworks, attending the wheel of a rope-spinner
for ten hours a day, and on Saturday afternoons and Sunday
mornings toiled in a barber's shop. He afterwards became a gas-
worker, and in 1889 he helped to found the National Union of
Gas Workers and General Labourers, becoming its general
secretary. This union (under the title of the National Union of
General Workers) had in 1921 a membership of over 600,000.
He became a member of the parliamentary committee of the
Trades Union Congress in 1894. He was chairman of the Con-
gress in 1912. In 1900 he contested West Ham unsuccessfully
in the Labour interest, but in 1906 was elected to Parliament
and came to the front as an active and energetic member of his
party. At the general election of 1918 he was returned with a
majority of 11,505. From 1800 he was a member of the West
Ham town council, being elected mayor in 1917. He had been a
member of the Social Democratic Federation since 1883.

THORNYCROFT, SIR WILLIAM HAMO (1850- ), English
sculptor (see 26.881), was knighted in 1917. His more recent
works include the King Edward memorial at Karachi (1915)
and " The Kiss" (1916), now at the Tate Gallery.

TH6RODDSEN, PORVALDR (1855- ), Icelandic geographer,
was born on the isl. of Flatey, in Breidifjordr, Iceland, June 6
1855, the son of Jon Thoroddsen (see 26.881), the poet and
novelist. His father's death in 1868 left the family in poor
circumstances, but the boy went to school at Reykjavik and in
1875 to the university of Copenhagen, where he studied natural
science and geography. In 1876 he was sent to Iceland by the



THURINGIA TIBET



723



Danish Government with Prof. Johnstrup to investigate the
causes of the eruption which had occurred the previous year at
Askja in Dyngjufjoll, and this proved the beginning of a long
series of Icelandic explorations. In 1880 he was appointed master
at the school of Mpdruvellir in northern Iceland, and in 1882,
1883 and 1884 made extensive explorations in the interior.
From 1884-6 he travelled in England and on the Continent, and
in 1886 was appointed master of the school at Reykjavik. Until
1898 he made a journey of exploration nearly every year, the
later expeditions being undertaken from Gopenhagen, where he
settled in 1805. Reports on his work appeared from time to time
in the Danish Geografisk Tidskrift, but he also produced various
important works, including Oversigt over de islandske Vulkaners
Historic (1882); Vulcane im nordostlichen Island (1891) and
Landfraedissaga Islands (1892), a monumental work for which
he collected material from the beginning of his career. Thorodd-
sen received many honours from universities and learned so-
cieties, and was awarded the gold medal of the Swedish and
the La Roquette medal of the Paris Geographical Society.

THURINGIA (see 26.901), a Territory and Free State of the
German Reich. Pop. 1,508,025. Area 11,763 sq. kilometres.

On April 30 1920 the union of the Territories Saxe- Weimar-
Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Gotha, Reuss,
Sch warzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, in one
Territory " Thuringia," was recognized by a law of the German
Reich, on the basis of article 18, section 2, of the Constitution of
the Reich. The consequence was thereby drawn from the aboli-
tion of the dynasties, whose policy of dynastic interests had in
former centuries caused the disintegration of central Germany
into small states. The removal of these dynasties had been effect-
ed in the Thuringian States, as in the Empire in Nov. 1918, by
the method of revolution. A noteworthy exception was Schwarz-
burg-Rudolstadt, where the republic was established by a law
enacted conjointly by the sovereign (the Prince of Schwarz-
burg-Rudolstadt) and the Diet.

The unification of the Thuringian States in one single State
was preceded by the union of the two principalities of Reuss into
one democratic State of Reuss. On the other hand the personal
union of the two States of Coburg and Gotha was dissolved,
and each of them went its own way. In all the States of Thu-
ringia elections were instituted after the revolution by the revo-
lutionary Governments for Constituent Assemblies to vote new
constitutions. Only in Gotha was the meeting of the new State
Assembly delayed. The Council of Workmen and Soldiers in
that Territory was subject to Communist influence and en-
deavoured to establish a Councils (Soviet) Republic. Gotha had
to be occupied in Feb. 1919 by detachments of the Reichswehr
(regular army of the Reich). The workmen replied by a general
strike which lasted more than a month. When the Assembly met,
the Government of Gotha, which was composed of Independent
Socialists, submitted the draft of a constitution which attempted
to maintain the system of Councils (Soviets). The work of
framing constitutions in all the Thuringian States had mean-
while been anticipated by the movement for forming a unified
single State of Thuringia.

Steps in the direction of a union had been taken in some of the
States of Thuringia before the revolution, but it was only by
the revolution that the path was cleared. All the Thuringian
States, with the exception of Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Coburg,
concluded a " treaty of community " (Gemeinschaftsvertrag) in
order to prepare for their amalgamation. They formed a kind
of federated state with an organ of legislation, the Volksrat
(Council of the People), and an organ of administration, the
Staatsrat (State Council). Saxe-Meiningen subsequently joined
this Community of States; in Saxe-Coburg a great majority of
the citizens decided on Nov. 30 1919 for union with Bavaria,
which was ratified by a law of the Reich on April 30 1920. on
the basis of article 20 of the Constitution.

The Volksrat of Thuringia passed a law on Jan. 28 1920, by
which it assumed the right to include within its competence the
enactment of a constitution for the State of Thuringia. Never-
theless, there was to be reserved ,for the first Diet (Landtag) of



the new State, which was to be elected on the basis of this con-
stitution, the right of making alterations in the constitution
within a period of three months by ordinary legislation. On
May 12 1920 the provisional constitution voted by the Volksrat
(Council of the People) was promulgated. On March u 1921
the newly elected Diet (Landtag) ratified this provisional con-
stitution with certain amendments. The birth of the new State
dates from May i 1920, the day on which its establishment was
voted by a law of the Reich. While the Thuringian Community
of States (see above) was organized on the lines of a confederation,
what was in contemplation is a single, unified State. For the
period of transition, however, the separate Thuringian States
continued to exist as communities or territorial regions (Gebiete)
their former constitutions remained in force as regional regulations
(Gebietssatzungeri). If any disputes should arise between the
Territory of Thuringia and the former Thuringian States, the
Court of Jurisdiction for State affairs (Staatsgerichtshof) was to
decide them; for the settlement of financial differences a court
of arbitration, half of whose members were to be elected by the
Thuringian Diet and half by the popular representative as-
semblies of the former States concerned, was to be set up.

In accordance with the Constitution of the Reich, Thuringia
is a republic with parliamentary government. The Diet, as in
the other Territories, consists of a single Chamber elected on a
system of proportional representation. It can be dissolved by a
popular vote ( Volksenlscheid) . The peculiarity of the Thuringian
Constitution is that the committees of the Diet may call in
experts to supplement their membership. The executive power
is in the hands of the Ministry, which is formed on the principle of
equal colleagues (Kollegialprinzip) and consists partly of mem-
bers who hold office and partly of members who hold no office
and who are designated State Councillors (Staatsriite) . The mem-
bers of the Ministry are appointed by the Diet. The president
of the Ministry is chosen by the Ministry and is merely its
chairman. The Thuringian constitution does not provide for
any President of the State. The legislative prerogatives of the
Diet are limited, as in the other German Territories, by the
right of the people themselves to vote laws; the people can be
invited to give their vote (referendum) upon a law which has
already been passed and may likewise by their own initiative
cause the expression, in a vote, of their will (Volksbegehren).

(W. v. B.)

THURSTON, ERNEST TEMPLE (1879- ), English novelist,
was born at Halesworth, Suffolk, Sept. 23 1879. At the age of 16
he published two volumes of verse. Two years later he published
his first novel, The Apple of Eden(i&gi, republished 1905), fol-
io wed by Traffic (1906); The Evolution of Kalherine (1907); The
Realist (1907) ; and two widely differing but very successful novels,
Sally Bishop (1908) and the City of Beautiful Nonsense (1909).
His later work includes, on the realistic side, The Antagonists
(191 2) and Richard Furlong (1913); and on the sentimental side
The Greatest Wish in the W 'arid (1910); The Garden of Resurrection
(1911); Enchantment (1917) and The World of Wonderful Reality
(1920). He dramatized his wife's novel, John Chilcote, M.P.
and one or two of his own, and wrote also, as original plays,
Driven and The Cost (1914), and The Wandering Jew (1920).

His wife, KATHERINE CECIL THURSTON (d. 1911), was born at
Cork, the daughter of Mr. Paul Madden. She married Mr.
Thurston in 1901, but in 1910 her marriage was dissolved on her
own petition. She was well known as a writer of novels, notably
The Circle (1903) ; John Chilcote, M.P. (1904) ; The Gambler (1906)
and The Fly on the Wheel (1908). The second of these, a study
of dual personality, created a considerable stir, both as a novel
and as a play. She died at Cork Sept. 6 1911.

TIBET (see 26.916). In Feb. 1910, at the approach of a small
Chinese force, which had invaded Tibet under Gen. Chun Ling
from Szechuen, the Dalai Lama fled to India and was deposed
by imperial decree. In exile at Darjeeling, he appealed for
British intervention at Peking, but the British Government de-
clined to dispute the authority of the de facto Government in
Tibet. At the same time, H.M, Government took occasion to
draw the attention of, the Government at Peking to the necessity



724



TIDES



for strict adherence to the terms of the treaty concluded in April
1906, and particularly to the inviolability of the frontiers of
Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. The last two years of the Manchu
dynasty witnessed the restoration of China's effective suzer-
ainty in Tibet from the border marshes to Lhasa, a result chiefly
due to the energetic and capable administration directed by
Chao Erh-feng, viceroy of Szechuen.

But the province of Szechuen was among the first to be reduced
to anarchy by the upheaval of the revolution of 1911, and after
the assassination of Chao Erh-feng, the authority of China as
suzerain power in Tibet was speedily challenged and overthrown.
When the news of the revolution reached Lhasa, the Chinese
garrison hastened to throw off its allegiance and following the
example of the troops in China, indulged in lawlessness and
looting at the expense of the civil population. The latter, led
by the ever-restless lamas, took up arms against the invaders and
the Chinese garrison found itself cut off from its base and be-
sieged. Desultory fighting continued until the return of the Dalai
Lama from India; peace was then (Aug. 1912) locally concluded,
under an agreement by which all Chinese troops (with the ex-
ception of the Chinese resident's body guard) evacuated the
country, departing via India after depositing their arms at
Lhasa. By this time China's garrisons had been expelled and
her authority overthrown in eastern Tibet by the semi-inde-
pendent chieftains of that region. The Government of the
republic at Peking, desiring to recover the prestige thus lost,
authorized the despatch of a punitive expedition, consisting of
forces raised by the military governors of Szechuen and Yunnan.
The expedition started from Chengtu in July 191 2 ; it had reached
and captured Batang in Aug., when, as the result of representa-
tions made by Great Britain at Peking (Aug. 19), its advance was
stopped and the project subsequently abandoned.

The British Government, in requesting China to abstain from
these military operations in Tibet, took the ground that such
action constituted a violation of the treaty of 1906. While
China's suzerainty was not disputed, the Government could not
consent to the forcible assertion of full sovereignty over a State
which had established independent treaty relations with Great
Britain. The Chinese Government was therefore invited to
negotiate a new tripartite agreement defining the status of Tibet.
To this communication China replied on Dec. 23 ; meanwhile the
expedition had been countermanded, but desultory fighting con-
tinued between Szechuen troops and the Tibetans of the border
marshes. The Chinese Government's reply justified its military
operations, on the ground that the Tibetan trade regulations of
1906 gave them the right to police the trade marts and protect
lines of communication. The republic, it declared, had restored
the Dalai Lama to his former position and titles and had no
intention of making Tibet a Chinese province, but would scrupu-
lously respect the traditional system of Tibetan Government.
Reference was made to the Indian Government's unfriendly
act in preventing communication between China and Tibet, via
India, and the hope was expressed that this policy might be
reconsidered; but the Chinese Government saw no reason for
negotiating a new treaty. Before the end of the year, the last
of the Chinese forces had been driven out of Tibet, and on Jan.
ii 1913 the Dalai Lama proclaimed the independence of the
country by concluding a treaty with the Living Buddha (Hutu-
khtu) of Urga (Outer Mongolia). In April, hostilities were re-
sumed by the military governor of Szechuen; at the same time
negotiations with the Dalai Lama were opened by President
Yuan Shih-k'ai, who sent a delegate to Chamdo to discuss terms
of peace. In May the British Government renewed its proposal
for a tripartite conference, which was ultimately accepted. The
conference opened at Simla on Oct. 13; Great Britain was repre-
sented by Lt.-Col. Sir A. H. M'Mahon, China by Mr. Ivan Chen,
and Tibet by her prime minister, Long Chen Shatra.

China's position at this conference was generally negative;