STRIKERS' LAWLESSNESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 181, 10 November 1910, Page 5

STRIKERS' LAWLESSNESS.

SERIOUS CONFLICTS WITH THE TOLICE. A PANORAMA OF WRECKAGE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, November 8. Troops have arrived and are heldJst Swindon in readiness to despatch to Wales. Three hundred additional police have been despatched. The chairman of the Miners' Committee is undertaking to use his influence to prevent injury to property and life. The district affected is a panorama of wreckage. The shop windows were smashed. Fifty men, including the general manager of the Glamorgan Colliery, are imprisoned in the power-house, where the mob holds them as hostages. The men are keeping the pumps going to prevent the mine being ruined. There ha 9 been further rioting at Clydachvale (Glamorgan) pit, where 60 strikers are in the hospital. A cavalry regiment has been sent from Swindon to Cardiff. The Premier has invited the men's representatives to a conference regarding the Cambrian dispute.

DISTURBANCES CONTINUE. Received 9, 10.20 p.m. London, November 9. It is officially stated that the chief constable in Glamorganshire on Monday night asked the local military authorities for 200 cavalry and two companies of infantry to assist in keeping order at the Cambrian collieries. Mr. Winston Churchill, after consultation with Mr. Haldane, sent instead seventy mounted and two hundred metropolitan foot constables. Mr. Churchill telegraphed to the Chief Constable: 'Tell the miners that their best friends here are greatly distressed at the present trouble, and will do their best to help to get fair treatment, but rioting must cease immediateliy to prevent Mr. Asquith's enquiry being prejudiced and because the credit of Rhonadda Valley is being injured. Miners should confide in the good sense of the Government, which has held back the soldiers for the present." Subsequently the Home Office announced that though the message was well received, the disturbances began as soon as it was dark. Hence orders were given to have ready 300 infantry, if needed, to be available at Tidworth. Newspaper correspondents eulogise the heroic efforts of Mr. Llewellyn, the Cambrian manager, and his 25 assistants in feeding the fires in order to save the Llwyn pits mine from flood and ruin.

DESPERATE DETERMINATION. "AN ORGY OF NAKED ANARCHY." Received 9, 11 p.m. London, November 9. Rioting continues at Aberdare and Abermain. Shops at Tonypandy were looted and great damage done. Serious conflicts occurred with the police, and a further detachment of Hussars from Tidworth is proceeding to Swindon. The Government, in response to the local authorities' requests, ordered General Macßeady, of Cardiff, to despatch cavalry to the disturbed districts. A squadron was sent to Pontypridd and another arrives to-day. Two hundred and seventy London metropolitan police, mounted and afoot, arrived at Tonypandy and Abermain, and two hundred additional London police at Pontypridd, and a detachment of infantry at Newport.

A Social Democratic Party manifesto places in juxtaposition M. Briand's summoning of the reservists to suppress a strike, and the Government's employment of military in South Wales, and urges all trade unionist workers to support their class.

Received 9, 11.50 p.m. London, November 9. The Time* Tonypandy correspondent states that despite tlie stipendiary magistrates' assurances from the managers that no imported labor will be employed, the mob attacked the Llwynpia powerhouse, with desperate determination to flood the mine. The rioters were armed with sticks, pieces of wooden palings, and stones, and the police resolutely charged them.

It is only fair to say that the leaders of the men showed this afternoon every sign of reasonableness and a desire for peace, but the rioters at night got completely out of hand. Disorder degenerated into an orgy of naked anarchy. The absence of troops was severely felt. Paling fences were destroyed and placed on the roads to obstruct the mounted police. A thousand rioters and twenty police were medically treated. Sixty were injured in i similar desperate attack at Middleduffyn colliery power-hou=e, and numbers were trampled under foot. Two correspondents were injured with stones, and one was rendered unconscious.