COAL DEADLOCK

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 162, 5 April 1921, Page 5

COAL DEADLOCK

SUPPORT FOR STRIKERS SOUGHT

RAILWAY AND TRANSPORT MEN MAY CEASE WORK

FIERY SPEECHES BY UNION OFFICERS

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright.

London, April 3.

The coal deadlock continues. Mass meetings wore held to-day throughout the country with the object of instructing delegatee to the London Conference whether the railwaymen and transport workers should come out In sympathy with the miners.

Mr. Ben Smith, secretary of the Read Transport Workers’ Union, speaking in the East End of London, said: ' "We shall bo asked on Tuesday or 'Wednesday to give the miners our undivided support regardless of the consequences. If we allow the miners to go down we shall be taken in sections and beaten. If we stand together we have a chance. If the Government floods file roads with motor transport my’ advice is that every driver should take his mate and. his brake heme and stop thtose motor-lor-ries running. If the Government wants sabotage it can have it to-day. It is not a question of democracy, but a class war. Let those who battened so long on the workers be given a taste of what a general social strike is like. Let the workers show that the people who work are the people who matter. On Tuesday or Wednesday we shall take up thn gage.” At a meeting the Newcastle and Gateshed railwaymen pledged their support io tho miners to the extent of a strike. Seven thousand railwaymen in Derby passed a motion that all sections should stand solid with the miners, recognising that unon the issue of tho struggle depends the status of the workers as a whole for generations.—Aus.-N.Z. Criblo Assn. ADVICE 0F RAILWAYMEN’S PRESIDENT London, April 3. Mr. C. T. Cramp (president of the National Union of Railwaymen), speaking at Birmingham to the Committee of Railwaymen, said he was deeply’ impressed’ with tho miners’ case, feeling that what was the fate of tho minora to-day might 'be tho railwaymen’s tomorrow. If T.ahour was defeated in detail the different sections would lose confidence in each other. "I say frankly,” said Mr. Cramp, “that if I were assured wo could achieve solid success I would not hesitate to force a strike, hut I do not believe that tho railwaymen alone, fighting with tho miners, could achieve success, because it is absolutely necessary to stop all forms ot transport, but tho railwaymen, miners, and transport workers should be successful. so I think they ought to have a shot at it.” —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assti. APPEAL TO TRADEUNION MOVEMENT SPEECH BY MINERS’ SECRETARY. (Rec. April 4. 5.5 p.m.) London, April 3. Mr. F. Hodges (secretary’ of the Minors’ Federation), in a speeclL nt Conisbrough, extended his appeal beyond the Triple Aliance to the whole trade union movement. He said it had been asked to assist, and he believed it would respond. The Miners’ Federation did not wish to dictate to other unions, but he believed the mass oi workers realised that if the miners were knocked out no other organisation could expect to stand upright. "If W fl» ■down, the nation is doomed. leash which keeps the workers from revolutionary efforts may be removed, resulting in upheaval and revolt.”—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. RAILWAYMEN’S VOTE PRINCIPAL CENTRES FAVOUR SYMPATHETIC STRIKE. (Rec. April 4. 5.5 p.m.) - London, April 3. All the principal railwaymen’s district centres voted in favour of a sympathetic strike. Most of the resolutions were in the same, form, declaring a determination ,to resist the attempt to lower the standard of life of the workers generally. and affirming that the miners’ cause wnfei the cause of all trade unionists. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. RESULT OF FLOODING MINES MANY PITS WILL BE PERMANENTLY CLOSED. London, April 3. Owners addressed, a mass meeting of North Staffordshire'miners and explained that unless volunteers manned the pumps, many mines must be closed down permanently They asked for volunteers, and four hundred men immediately volunteered. — Aus.-N.Z. table Assn. HEN COMPELLED TO QUIT FIFE PITS STRIKERS THREATEN TO WRECK MACHINERY. (Rec. April 4, 7.20 p.m.) London, April 4. Strikers at Fife marched to two pits where the men were working, and compelled them to quit. The owners of one pit asked the strikers to permit the enginmen to descend and operate the drainage machinery’, but the strikers declared that if they descended they would wreck the surface machinery. A large force of police has been jlesputolled to the scene. —Aus.-N.Z. Ca'ole Assn. LIMITINGWPLIES EMERGENCY ORDER PUBLISHED. London, April 3. The emergency directions have been published, and they confirm the summary cabled. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. [The “Evening Standard” stated, that an emergency order was to be issued yesterday limiting householders to a hundred-weight of coat weekly, and reducing factories’, shops’, a “d warehouses’ supplies of coal, electricity, and -as, both for lighting and power, by 50 i>’-r cent.; also enforcing n weakening strength of gas and reducing street ligTitthg io a mintmum.]