MINE STRIKES IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24226, 6 April 1944, Page 5

MINE STRIKES IN BRITAIN

“Too Much at Stake” Says Mr Bevin EARLY ACTION EXPECTED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 5. “The Government in the next three or four days intends to act to end all strikes in Britain interfering with the launching of the second front,” says the “Daily Express.” “The Government to-day took secret decisions but Mr Bevin (Minister of Labour and National Service) will first consult the Trades Unions’ Congress and the Mineworkers’ Federation.

"The miners’ strips in South Wales last month and now in Yorkshire, where there are still about 70,000 idle, have brought to a head the whole principle of collective bargaining. The Government has decided that this principle must be upheld or severe disciplinary measures must he introduced.” The “Daily Mall” says: “The Government appreciates the restlessness from which all workers are suffering at this stage of relative inactivity on the western fronts but the danger of the anarchy now manifesting itself in the coalfields and spreading to other industries, must be stopped. Mr Bevin has Cabinet’s support for the drastic measures he intends to take and it depends on the miners whether the measures are used,” Mr Bevin. addressing the Civil Engineering Construction Conciliation Board, said: “What has happened this week in Yorkshire is worse than if Hitler had bombed Sheffield and cut our communications. I would say to the miners: ‘You don’t live alone. If you pursue a policy of defying your leaders, industrial agreements properly arrived at, and the Arbitration Courts for which you worked for 30 years, you will overthrow it all and reduce it to anarchy.’ It is not the miners alone ■who will suffer but the great mass of the working class. I think we are entitled at least to have our lines of communication open and,our soldiers supported. We are not going to lose this war. Whether it is the apprentices, the miners, or anybody else we are not have the country let down. We cannot afford it There is too much at stake.” Mr R. A. Eden, Leader of the House «™ n fed to-day that the Goverm nient, through the Minister of Fuel (Major 6. Lloyd George), hoped to give the House of Commons a statesXig°day C ° al SitU3tion 3t the next The president of the Yorkshire Mineworkers Federation (Mr J. H. Hall) referring to incidents at mass meetings, said: We are no longer going to tolerate rule by rabbles. We are not going to allow the stability of the trades union movement to be undermined in this way. ,„„3i^ ere -D^ s a malicious machine at work. By continuing the strike the men are stabbing Mr Bevin In the

The Daily Telegraph” says that the Governments first move might be against organisations “which for two years have consistently endeavoured to \lf P Z the machineryfor the settlement of- strikes.” These S 6 Militant Movement Partv mrw?^°lu tlonary . Communist party most of the members of which Stc rs" Thel ** trained aguaurs. They worked, said the “TelpP ph ; with great secrecy and detecnnfn« had v hj . e g / eat ® st difficulty in compiling a list of their members.