COMMUNIST ROUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 144, 8 September 1927, Page 1

COMMUNIST ROUT

TRADE UNION CONGRESS A BITTER DEBATE WILD SCENES OF DISORDER By Cable. — Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Wednesday. It transpires that the adjournment of the debate on the motion to send back to the Trades Unions Council its instruction that the unions connected with the Minority Movement should not be

recognised, was due to Mr. Herbert Smith, president of the Miners’ Federation, discovering that Mr. A. J. Cook held the miners’ voting cards, the exercise of which was a matter of contention. Mr. Smith convened a meeting of the miners' delegates in the evening. The proceedings were most stormy-,' the Scottish miners challenging the policy of Mr. Smith, who, however, won over the opposition. He entered the Congress this morning all smiles. The Congress speedily endorsed the Council’s report, by 3,746,000 votes to 148,000, so the Communists were routed. A bitter debate on the Minority Movement had taken place at the previous session. WILD DISORDER “Were this my last night on earth I would never take instructions from Moscow or from the Minority Movement,” said Mr. Smith, president of the Miners’ Federation. Amid wild disorder, interruptions, the ringing of the president’s bell and delegates rising to speak on all sides, Mr. Smith was continually heckled. He declared there was no difference between the members of the Minority Movement and the Communists. Both were instructed from Moscow and both were determined to wreck the constitutional trades unions. “THE NASTIER WE’LL BE"

Mr. Walter Citrine, secretary of the congress, seconded the rejection of the motion. He suggested that the slogan of the members of the Minority Movement was: “The more we are together the nastier we shall be.”

Mr. H. Pollitt caused a sensation by declaring that if orders from Moscow were in the best interests of the working classes he would not hesitate to follow, them.

Amid uproar Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., rose and said: “The machinery of the British trades unions is more democratic than anything in Russia.” —A. and N.Z.