THE STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1921, Page 5

THE STRIKE.

RAILWAYMEN IN SYMPATHY. DISTRICT CENTRES FAVOR STRIKE. GENERAL APPEAL TC UNIONS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn—Copyright. Received April 4, 5.5 p.m. London, April 3 All the principal railwaymen's district centres voted in favor of a sympathetic strike. Most of the resolutions were in the same form, declaring the men’s determination to resist the attempt to lower the standard of life of the w’orkers generally, and affirming that the miners’ cause was the cause of all trade unionists. Mr. Frank Hodges (the miners’ leader), in a speech at Conisborough, extended his appeal beyond the triple alliance to the whole trade union movement. He said it had been asked to assist, and he believed it would respond. The Miners’ Federation did not wish to dictate to other unions, but he believed the mass of workers realised that if the miners were knocked out no other organisation could expect to stand upright. “If we go down the nation is doomed,” he added. “The leash which keeps the workers from revolutionary efforts may be removed, resulting in upheaval and revolt.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. TROUBLE IN FIFE. THREAT TO WRECK MACHINERY. MINERS FOUND WORKING. Received April 4, 7.20 p.m. London, April 4. Strikers at Fife marched to two pits where men were working and compell-

ed them to quit The owners of one pit asked the strikers to permit the enginemen to descend and operate the drainage machinery, but the strikers declared that if they descended they would wreck the surface machinery. A large force of police have been despatched to the scene.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. SUPPORT FOR MINERS. TRANSPORTERS MAY JOIN. London, April 3. The coal deadlock continues. There were ma-ss meetings to-day throughout the country with the object of instructing delegates to the London Conference whether the railwaymen and transporters shall come out in sympathy with the miners.

Ben Smith, secretary of the Road Transporters, speaking in the East End of London, said: “We shall be asked on Tuesday or Wednesday to give the miners undivided support regardless of consequences. If we allow the miners to go down we shall be taken in sections and beaten. If we stand together we have a chance. If the Government floods the roads with motor transport my advice is that every driver should take his mate and his brake home and stop those motor lorries running. If the Government want sabotage they can have it. To-day it is not a question of democracy, but of a class war. Let those who have fattened so long on the workers be given a taste of what a general social strike is like. Let the workers show that the people who work are the people who matter. On Tuesday or Wednesday we shall take up a gage.” A meeting of Newcastle and Gateshead railwaymen pledged their support to the miners to the extent of a strike. Seven thousand railwaymen at Derby passed a resolution that all sections stand solid with the miners, recognising that, upon the issue of the struggle depends the status of the workers as a whole for generations. The owners addressed a mass meeting of North Staffordshire miners and explained that, unless volunteers manned the pumps, many mines must be closed down permanently. They asked for volunteers. Four hundred men immediately volunteered. The emergency directions published confirm the summary cabled on April 2.

HOLDING TOGETHER.

London, April 3. Mr. Cramp, president of the National Union of Railwaymen, speaking at Birmingham, said the committee of the railwaymen were deeply impressed by the miners’ case. What was the fate of the miners to-day might be that of the railwaymen to-morrow. If Labor was defeated in detail the different sections would lose confidence in each other.

‘T say frankly that if we were as? sured that we could achieve a solid success we would not hesitate to force a strike, but I do not believe the ra:lwaymen alone, fighting with the min-ers,-could achieve success, because it is absolutely necessary to stop all forms of transport, but the railwaymen, minp. - and transporters should be successfH. so they thought they ought to have a hot at it.”