COAL DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 83, 2 January 1930, Page 11

COAL DISPUTE

NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS LEAVE ROTHBURY FEAR OF ATTACK (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Sydney, January 1. There are no developments in the coal situation beyond a report that fourteen voluntary workers at Rothbury Colliery have left the field, owing to the prison-like life, and constant fear of attack by strikers. GRIM REPORTS MINERS SAID TO BE ARMING Newcastle, December 31. Grim reports that the miners are organising in secret for an armed return to Rothbury a\e again circulating in the coalfields. The “Herald” says that some early morning in the near future will see the arrival of a band of picked men at the gates of the mine, according to reports from interested quarters. . I have been sworn-m to-day, if it is necessary,” was the remarkable statement of one of a South Maitland lodge’s members. While discussing the position the same man declared that, despite the police search of miners homes, he still had a gun, and others were similarly placed. “I am under a vow to be there when ever begin," was another man’s declaration. One miner declared, after warning pressmen to avoid Rothbury as a dangerous locality for the next few weeks, that the public would know all about the Labour Defence Corps before the coalfields quietened down.