BATTLE ON TRADE UNION BILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 1

BATTLE ON TRADE UNION BILL

CLASH IN BRITAIN

LABOUR’S CAMPAIGN READY Cy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright LONDON, Tuesday. The stage is now set for the fight in the House of Commons over the Trade Union Bill. The Government’s campaign in defence of the measure was opened last evening, when three Ministers spoke in different parts of the country. Other members of the Cabinet will join in the campaign in a few days. Sir Loming Worthington-Evans, Secretary of State for War, announced at Colchester that the Government is willing to extend the strike clauses in the bill to lock-outs. He commended, to the notice of women voters Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's pledge to repeal the measure if Labour came into power. The Government was prepared to fight this issue. Sir Robert Horne, Conservative M.P. for Hillhead, Glasgow, in a speech at Glasgow, said the bill was the most crucial before Parliament. He warned his listeners against the assumption that the Conservatives’ majority was too large to be destroyed at one blow. Sir Robert expressed the opinion that the next election would be the most vital since the war. Although it was two years distant the Conservatives must prepare for it now. The Government would be confronted both by Labour and Liberal opposition on the bill. Every attempt would be made to inflame the electors. Nevertheless the Conservatives would enter upon the conflict without misgivings. Conservative headquarters have circulated 2,000,000 pamphlets and leaflets explaining and defending the bill as "the workers’ charter of liberty.” The second reading debate will be opened in the House on May 2 and the division will be due on the evening of May 4, the anniversary of the outbreak of the general strike. The central board of the Co-opera-tive Union has issued an appeal to Britain's 5,000,000 co-operators to assist in every way to defeat the measure. It is described as “imperilling the foundations upon which the associated democracy of Britain has been built up.” The “Daily Herald” says Labour’s plan of campaign against the bill has been completed. It announces that a special conference between the executives of the various trade unions will be held on Friday.—A. and N.Z.