BACK DOOR EXIT.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18604, 1 February 1926, Page 9

BACK DOOR EXIT.

MR COOK HECKLED. BRITISH MINING CRISIS. (BT CASS.B—MESS iHSOCIATIOS—CcmiOBT) (ju-siraijas i£D s.s. cabis association.) (Received January 31st, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, January 30. Undergraduates vainly attempted to rush tho Corn Exchange, Oxford, in which Mr J. A. Cook (secretary of the Miners' Union) made a speech ott the coal situation. They threw stones va the roof, smashed windows, exploded fireworks, and sang tho National Anthem. Mr Cook, who was inside, said: Our miners could sing better than that lot. I ain trying to provent a crisis. Wo don't want tho miners for the* mines but for tho nation. Tho Government say they will form a strike-breaking organisation, but bayonets cannot cus coal. While a decoy taxi-cab was outside tho door, surrounded by undergraduates, Mr Cook escaped by another exit. Ho crossed tho road and passei through a privato house, where tho Chief Constable joined him at the back door with another taxi-cab, in which ho proceeded to tho station unmolested, A PUNGENT LETTER. MR COOK CRITICISED. (AUSTEALIAH AND Jf.B. CADIX AB3OOATTOS.) LONDON, January 29. Mr J. H. Thomas, in a pungent lettor to tho ''Daily Herald," severely criticises the minors' leader. Mr Thomas says: "Like the majority of the members of the movement. I long ceased to treat Mr J. A. Cook seriously. I only rogret that a great organisation like tho Miners' Federation should day by day have its case ruined by his childish outbursts. When Mr Cook presumes "to advise other unions, and to criticise tho railwaymen's conference, ho should remember that the great mass of trades unionists do not judge the leaders by frothy orations, hut by their deliverance of the goods. T am quite content to stand a comparison of my services to the railwaymen with his to the miners.'

"CLASS-CONSCIOUS."

MR COOK'S ATTITUDE. (AUSTBALIAS AMD K.X. CJL2UI AMOCIJrtOX.I (Received January 31st, 11.5 p.».) LONDON, January 30. Mr J. A. Cook, replying to Mr Thomas's letter, says: "I cannot claim to be an after-dinner speaker liko Sir Thomas at functions which he attends, nor a leader of fashion, but I do claiit to bo a class-conscious fighter for th« workers, and shall accept instruetioni only from the class I represent. Th< chief ambition of Mr Thomas apparent ly is to be a leader of fashion ol dinners given by tho enemies \of tho working classes. It isn't mine, and, thank Hoaven, I have made no speeches which .would look well in comic papers. "Mr Thomas saye I am no longer taken seriously by the majority of the Labour movement. lam afraid Mr Thomas is out of touch therewith. "Mr Thomas, along with the Dukes and other noble Lords, has long wished mo in a warm place. I hope I shan't go thertf." The "Sunday Express" Bays that Mr Thomas, commenting oa the speech, said: "My letter gave my opinion of Mr Cook's qualities Sis ft leaden Mr Cook's statements abput ins don't matter."