Two letters questioning the role played by the Town Council in the Peace Day riots and the future of Mayor Henry Impey were published in the Luton News on August 14th, 1919.
'Lest We Forget' wrote: “One is glad that some, at least, of the offenders who helped to make our town hideous on Peace Day are being brought to justice. No doubt they are receiving their desserts, and rightly so.
Having given interviews to two newspapers when he returned to Luton on the Thursday following the Peace Day riots, Mayor Henry Impey was recorded as having paid another visit on Monday, August 11th, 1919.
Both police and firemen have been paid a meed of official and public recognition which everyone agrees they richly deserve for their gallant and heroic conduct against overwhelming odds in connection with Luton's notorious peace rioting, but the soldiers have been entirely left out of it all, and many who noticed the salutary effect of the soldiers' intervention consider they have cause to feel aggrieved at what can only have been an unintentional oversight.
[Beds & Herts Tuesday Telegraph: August 5th, 1919]
Luton seems very empty now. The big works are closed for the week, there is a general holiday in the straw trade for the week, and the shops are closed for part of the week. Thousands of people have gone away, and despite the crowded conditions of all the seaside resorts, they seem to have found places in which to make a home for the time being.
Two weeks after the Peace Day riots, the Luton Reporter newspaper (August 5th) gave its view of what it headlined “Luton's burden of debt and disgrace”. Its editorial read:
In spite of the visible scars and stains left by the disastrous happenings of a fortnight back, the town had become more or less restored to a normal condition of affairs in time for what has always been known locally as the holiday month. Unhappily there remains the burden of debt and disgrace.
Luton no longer stands alone in its unenviable reputation, said the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph of August 9th, 1919. The temporary lapse into riot on Peace Day has been eclipsed by Liverpool disturbances. Said the newspaper:
During the four days of magistrates court hearings resulting from the riots, prisoners were transferred by train between Bedford jail, where they were being held on remand, and the Luton courthouse in a “chain gang” system.
[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: August 2nd, 1919]
Last night, following a notice handed in, about ten men at the Luton Iron Foundry, High Town, came out on strike. Fortunately, the holiday week follows, and it is hoped that a settlement may be arrived at before the resumption on Monday week.
Insp Herbert Hunt and Pc Sear and Pc Silvester, three of the four members of Luton Borough Police Force so badly mauled by the mob in the peace rioting outside the Town Hall that they had to be treated for their injuries in the Bute Hospital, were discharged from the hospital on Monday evening [July 28th].