MOBBED BY MINERS

Shannon News, 6 October 1925, Page 4

MOBBED BY MINERS

BISHOP WEMiDON IN DANGER JOSTLED BY ANGRY CROWD RUSHED TO RIVER'S EDGE. A regrettable scene, in which a bishop of the Church of England was mobbed by crowds attending a ni.ners' gala, occurred at Durham recently: The bishop was Dr. Welldon, now Dean of Durham, and formerly Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India. He was making his way toward the platform on the racecourse from which Mr. Ramsay McDonald,, the Labour Party leader, was addressing a section of the 180,000 miners and their wives attending the gala, when he was attacked. How the dean escaped being thrown headlong into the River Weir it i 3 difficult to conceive. The crowd had been roused by reference during the gala speeches by Mr. Ramsay McDonald and Mr. E. Shinwell, ex-Minister for Mines, to recent statements on the coal situation by the Bishop of Durham in a London newpaper. Passion against representatives of the church was also aroused by the appearance of a banner, on which were the words "To hell with the Bishops and Deans We Want a Living Wage." The atmosphere generally was against the appearance of any member of the church, and it was at this moment that Dr. Welldon appeared on the scene. "Here's the bishop," someone shouted,, and the chorus was. taken up oy hundreds of people, and an ugly situation followed. Tfce dean, finding himself in difficulties in the midst of a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 people, had got to within a few yards of the platform at which Mr. Macdonald was speaking, when the great rush commenced.

"To The River." Dr; Welldon was jostled from sidt to side and kicked and struck "To the river, to the river," the people shouted. "Don't let him get on the platform." All was commotion. The dean had taken off his hat, and he was hurried across the racecourse to the river, although a number of more temperate people, realising the situation, attempted to stem the rush.

Dr. Welldon, by his time, was at the water's edge. The police were powerless to prevent the occurrence, but they commandeered a motor launch, which was passing down stream, at the time, and while a group of strong men were endeavouring to keep back the angry crowd, Bishop Welldon was hauled in. Dr. Welldon, minus his silk hat and umbrella, which had been torn from him,, then sailed away down midstream with the angry cries of the enraged mob following him until he was out of sight. The boat proceeded for a distance of a mile and a-half to the university landing stage, where he disembarked covered with dust and grass which had clung to his gaiters, and walked to the deanery. "I cannot understand why the miners have adopted this attitude toward me," Dr. Welldon remarked,, "because I have always shown them the utmost sympathy in their struggles for better conditions." [ The dean after recovering from his alarming experience, went in to the cathedral, where many miners and their wives had assembled, and subsequently delivered a discourse in which he appealed to the men to hesitate before they plunged the nation and the Empire into a supreme disaster. Mr. E. Shinwei. ex-Minister for Mines, when subsequently addressing a miners' demonstration at Chester-le-Streeet, near Durham, said: "While we deplore the incident, the action o£ the dean in proceeding to racecourse was foolish in i the circuny stances, but not inconsistent with his previous utterances. Little blame attached to the miners, for, with no other means of curbing the tongue of a dean, It was the sort of thing they might be expected to do."