TRADES UNION CONGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 218, 15 September 1925, Page 7

TRADES UNION CONGRESS.

SOME VERBAL IRRITANTS. DEMAGOGUES AND EMPIRE. LONDON, September 14. By an overwhelming majority the Trades Union Congress has passed a resolution supporting the rights of all peoples of the Empire to self-determina-tion, including complete separation from the Empire. Mr. J. H. Thomas, who ridiculed the limitation of the speeches to three minutes, said, in dealing with Palestine, Egypt, Giina, Kenya and elsewhere, that the delegates who spoke of Kenya knew nothing of the country. Let the British Labotir party, he remarked, say what it had to say about Kenya to the South African Labour party, and let it talk in the same strain to the people of Canada and Australia. They would receive their answer. The chief speakers in support of the resolution were Mr. Purcell, who headed the deputation to Russia some months, ago, and Mr. Pollitt. a Communist. They both delivered violent speeches. The resolution was about to be put to the vote when Mr. Thomas intervened. He appealed to the congress not to make itself ridiculous by • passing such an important resolution with half the delegates gone and only three minutes allowed for speeches. The figures at the voting were 3,083,000 for and 79,000 against. The members of the National Union of Railwaymen. of which Mr. Thomas is general secretary, abstained from voting. The new general council, which has been elected, consists mostly of moderates, including Mr. Thomas.

There was only a small attendance at the closing session but the debate was a lively one.— (Reuter.)