"A LONE FIGHT."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18906, 22 January 1927, Page 15

"A LONE FIGHT."

LATE STRIKE DIS

CUSSED.

STATEMENT BY MINERS'

FEDERATION

"WILL RECOVER LOST GROUND."

(ET CAELI—rp.KSS ASSOCIATION— COPTRIGHT, IAL'STP.ALIAN A NI> N.2, CABLE ASSOCIATION.

LONDON, January 20.

"If we were deserted and forced to fight a lone fight, it was not by the workers that we were abandoned."

This sentence, at the outset, is characteristic of the strongly-worded statement by the Miners' Federation on the general strike, prepared for the conference of Trade Union Executives to-day.

The statement declares: "The general strike was the climax of the concerted endeavours of the employers for years to solve their problem by wagecutting. In i92j it was narrowed to the mining industry with its special difficulties. The first attempt at general wages reduction in July, 1925, was defeated because the Labour movement was then under a strong and determined leadership. The Trade Union Council stood by the miners, and the

overnment, which backed the coalowuers, was compelled to postpone the conflict and to take time to load its trims. The real purpose of the Royal Commission, thereafter appointed, was to find the argument which divided the united front of the whole movement. But the Trade Union Council which, in February, 192b', reaffirmed the solidarity of the miners, and other Trade Unionists, hesitated, six weeks later, after the publication, of the Commission's report, to reaffirm the position on which it had committed '. the whole movement. Thus the workers entered the' general strike, unaware that the Trade Union Council contemplated yielding. Having once decided on a policy of yielding, ey yielded consistently until the end.

The statement concluded: "The fight is not over. Longer hours and lower wages cannot bring peace in the coalfields. We will not allow the district agreements to shatter oiv strength, and the unity of our organisation Is still intact. We are determined to recover the lost ground and look confidently for the support of the whole Trade Union movement." .A'vote of confidence in.the General Council of the T.U.C. and censure of the Miners' Federation was an issue privately debated. ''• . There was a lively interlude after Mr Pugh read the report. Many demanded to know why the had called out the engineers and ship-' builders. The morning strike was cancelled for other unions, and they asked why these unions, were not included in the genera] strike order. Mr Thomas,, who.had .a mixed reception, criticised .the miners' leaders. He concluded by making, a vigorous ap.peal.to support the council. , At the T.U.C. meeting, Mr A. J. Cook, replying to,, Mr J... H. Thomas, spoke for almost an hour-.without rousing enthusiasm. He was,-once subjected to considerable .interruption. . .. ..« Mr W. M. Citrine followed', and reiljied on many..,facts .and details, to controvert Mr Cook.■■• His ; speech 'greatly impressed delegates) '.'causing a round of applause, . Mr Ernest Bcvin also replied to the miners. :

~'' The meeting adjourned after passing a resolution that the Gonoral Council's report and the miners' statements should be referred to the unions for a rank and file-vote'. '■.

Summing up a .lengthy argument in defence of the miners' rejection of the Samuel Memorandum, the statement declares: "To put it bluntly, the General Council were leading the miners into a trap, but the miners refused to be entrapped." • The statement concluded: "The fight is not over. • Longer .hours and lower wages cannot bring peace in the coalfields. We will not allow the "'strict agreements to shatter our strength, and tho unity of ' our organisation is" still intact! We are determined to recover the lost ground and look confidently for the support of tho wholo Trade Union movement."

TWO' HUNDRED DELEGATES.

LONDON, January 20,

The general strike inquest opened at the Central Hall, Westminster, to. consider the separate reports of the Trades Union Congress and the Miners' Federation, as cabled earlier. Two hundred delegates, representing 4,000,000 . unionists, attended. Mr Hicks, president of the T.U.C.,. was chairman. Messrs Kamsay Mac Donald and J. H. Thomas were present, also several of the deposed strike-time members of the Miners' Executive, to defend their policy, though Mr Cook earlier said: "We are going to fight the greatest struggle of. our lives. We are not in the dock, wo are accusers." Extremists' boasted that they hoped to censure the T.U.C. and uphold the miners. A leading member of the T.U.C. Ex-, ecutive prophesied: "The inquest will be thorough. Nothing will be concealed. When all is over to-night I think, we shall have given the strike a decent burial and concentrate on the future. Wo shall bury our differences and the hatchet."