BRITISH LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 11, 7 October 1927, Page 11

BRITISH LABOUR

TO FIGHT THROUGH BALLOTBOX

AND SPARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN

LEADER DISILLUSIONED B.r Telegraph.—Press association. Copyright. London, October 5. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, in a . remarkable speech, moving at the Labour Conference a motion deploring the state of the coal industry, saia that he had been accused of grovelling during the strike, because he hoped that employers would show a fine attitude of mind. “When I see clouds threatening the destruction of our men and women,” he said, “if I can get accommodation going on my knees I shall do so. Ido not feel I am forfeiting respect, but that having been done I confess I am a disillusioned man. Henceforth, we give you not only our tongues, but our brains. Nationalisation is the only cure.” Mr. Herber. Smith thanked Mr. MacDonald for such a message, .and added: “We miners are going to be missionaries, and fight through the ballot-box, not the stomachs of our women and children; we will not accept Lloyd George’s chloroform.” WILD SCENE AT CONFERENCE QUESTION OF BIRTH CONTROL London, October 5. There was a wild scene at the Blackpool Conference of the Labour Party, when women delegates attempted .to make birth control a party plank against the decision of the executive. Immediately a delegate opposed it “as a member of an Irish Catholic family.” Feeling was high when a remark by Mr. Jack Jones, M.P., angered the conference. Mr. A. J. Cook rushed to the platform shouting: “You fool, you big fool, you are the fool of the Labour Party. Withdraw 1”

Mr. Jones refused, and invited delegates to try to throw him out. “They can't muzzle me in the House of Commons, and I won’t be muzzled here.” Pandemonium reigned until Mr. Jones withdrew without apology. Eventually the conference defeated by 2,885,000 to 225,000 votes any attempt to refer the proposal back to the executive.