"STAY BELOW" STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 249, 21 October 1935, Page 7

"STAY BELOW" STRIKE.

Miners Stagger on Reaching Pithead. SOUTH WALES DISPUTE. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, October 20. Workers in the Nine Mile Point mine, who inaugurated a "stay below" strike as a protest against the employment of non-union workers, looked haggard and worn when they emerged from the pit. After remaining underground for a week the men decided to accept the recommendation of their union to return to the surface. Crowds cheered them as they emerged from the , pit. The men on coming to the surface stumbled about, requiring support to reach waiting motor, oars and ambulances. "We mainly lived jn the stables from which the ponies had been sent up," said a miner. ''We slept on boards, played quoits and held concerts and services. We were never short of food but got tired and stiff." The owners had promised that there will be no victimisation and are in negotiation on other points. Sympathetic strikers are gradually returning to work. Earlier reports were to the effect that strikers elsewhere than at the Nine Mile Point colliery in South Wales are still holding out. Between 35,000 and 40,000 miners are now reported to be on strike, in defiance of their leaders, in sympathy with the Nine Mile Point men. In spite of the decision of the owners to close the Nine Mile Point pit the "stay down" strikers had previously declined to return to the surface until they received a written pledge that there would be no victimisation and no employment of non-unionists. A few elderly and sick miners had been sent up by their comrades.