STRIKE CLASH AT SAVOY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25345, 19 November 1947, Page 6

STRIKE CLASH AT SAVOY

PICKETS AND LABOUR M.P. ARRESTED MOVE BY UNIONS TO EXTEND STOPPAGE (E S ) . LONDON, Nov. 18 Mr Arthur Lewis, M.P., who is organiser of the London branch of the National Union ot Municipal Workers and about 25 pickets, including some women, were arrested at the Savoy Sv tel , sh ° rtl y c , before midnight and ta n? n T to B° w stre et Police Station inv.hf'h 1 i s . char §ed with obstructS^ir2 le wi iShway l ! nd obstructing the police. He was released on bail and rAilrf at - he Bow stre ®t Police Court this morning. ,„u^ r fc Lewis protested vehemently when he was seized by an inspector A^P st *. We ’ th e “Daily Mail. After he had gone a few paces he struggled and fell to the grounowith fel escort He shouted continuously, They re twisting my arms, they’re hurting my back.’ ” The arrests followed clashes between the police and strikers who tried to Prevent a lorry from delivering oil to the Savoy Hotel. The strikers threw themselves on the roadway in front of tne lorry. The police removed them and later mounted police helped to restore order. Earlier Mr Lewis said that the police had manhandled him at the Savoy Hotel on Saturday night. He addedMake no mistake, the trade union movement will not stand for the police being used to break an official strike.” Five hundred union stewards and house representatives from London hotels and restaurants outside the Savoy group decided unanimously to request their national executive to call out the whole of the catering trade workers in London by Wednesday morning in support of the Savoy workers. The Savoy group representatives were present, but they did not participate in the voting. t . chairman of the meeting (Mr J. Blair) said that uniformed policemen last night thronged the corridors -? av ° y Simpson’s. He added mat if the Home Secretary (Mr Chuter Ede) sought to justify the action of his officials he would be guilty of a crime against the entire Labour movement, which placed Mr Chuter Ede and his friends where they were to-day.