PRESS STRIKE.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1926, Page 1

PRESS STRIKE.

THE OFFENDING ARTICLE. ‘DAILY MAIL” DISPUTE. In the ofiices of the ‘‘Daily Mail,” Carmelite House, began the newspaper • strike, which was part of the General Strike in Great Britain. The trouble in the “Daily Mail” Office began when a group of employees, engaged in one of the processes essential to the production of the paper, demanded the withdrawal ot a certain leading article. The editor refused to modify the article, and gave the employees half an Lour in which to decide to carry on. The men chose to go on strike. Ihe offending article is republished hereunder. The London edition of the “Daily Mail” on that morning of May drd was not published, but tbc Manchester and Paris editions of tbc paper were printed and distributed, and these editions contained the article to which exception was taken. Following is the full text of the article:— “FDR KING AND COUNTRY.” “The miners, alter weeks of negotiation, have declined the proposals made to them, and the coal mines of Britain are idle. “ The Council of the Trades Union Congress, which represents all the other trade unions, has determined to support the miners by going to the extreme of ordering a general strike. “Tins determination alters the whole position. The coal industry, which might have been reorganised with goodwill on both sides, seeing that some ‘give and take’ is plainly needed to restore it to prosperity, has now ■ become the subject of a great political struggle which the nation has no choice hut to face with the utmost ( coolness and tile utmost firmness.

“ We do not wish to say anything hard about the miners themselves. As fo their leaders, all wo need say at this moment is that some of them are (and have openly declared themselves) under the influence of people who moan no good to this country. “ A general strike is not ail industrial dispute. It is a revolutionary movement intended to inflict suffering upon the great mass of innocent persons in the community and thereby to put forcible constraint upon the Government.

“ It- is a movement which c.lll only succeed by destroying the Government and subverting tlie rights and liberties of the people. “ This being the case, it cannot he tolerated by any civilised Government, and it must be dealt with by every resource at the disposal of the commiiiiitv.

“ A .State of Emergency and national danger has been proclaimed to resist the attack.

“ We call upon all law-abiding men and women to bold themselves at the service of King and Country.”