THE COAL TROUBLE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1926, Page 2

THE COAL TROUBLE

[Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] MEN LEAVE PITS AGAIN. LONDON, August 24. Hundreds of policemen are patrolling tho read leading to the Mansfield coal pits, which are deserted by almost a*!' of the men who went to work in them at the week-end. The miners’ officials in Midlothian (Scotland) deny that there has been any breakaway there. There was -a serious clash between police and strikers at Clipstone Col-. Hery, near Mansfield. A crowd, armed with sticks, gathered on the road along which the miners who are working there pass, A body of police demanded the sticks. A scuffle ensued. -Sev eral myiiers’ were wounded by the batons. In another . place in the same district,' two policemen were assisting men through a hostile crowd. They were knocked down and beaten. Three miners were arrested near Chesterfield, where a motor bus containing pet!ice was stoned. . The officials of the Miners’ Federation. including Mr Herbert Smith and Mr Cook, have returned to London for the meeting to which Mr Cook referred mysteriously during his Midlands campaign. The “Daily Herald” states that certain developments will follow, but their nature has not been disclosed. The “Morning Post” admits that Mr Cook has won at-Mansfield, and it attributes this to mass intimidation which, it says, the Government should find means of preventing.