LABOUR SUPPORT
British Rearmament Plan TRADES UNION VIEWS Means of Maintaining Peace (British Official, Wireless.) (Received September 12, 7 p.m.) Rugby, September 10. By 3.544,000 to 224,000, the Trades Union Congress defeated the proposed reference back of the section of the General Council’s report dealing with international policy and defence. The report, which has been generally regarded as bringing the support of the trade union movement to the Government’s rearmament programme, was then adopted almost unanimously. Sir Walter Citrine, in a speech which was enthusiastically received, said their first duty was to try to rebuild the League of Nations. They would never abandon it and they wanted to co-operate with other countries In that purpose. But it would take time, and meantime the prime responsibility for the maintenance of peace might fall on one of the countries adequately prepared and ready to shoulder those responsibilities. In these circumstances they could not escape the conclusion that a measure of rearmament was indispensable if a country was to face its obligations. The Labour Party hoped to become at no distant date the Government of the country. But if rearmament was necessary, common sense dictated it should not wait the advent of the Labour Party to power. This argument was addressed by Sir Walter Citrine to the movers of the reference back, whp expressed distrust Of the National Government’s foreign policy, and he added, “Much as I may distrust the intention of tho British Government, I distrust the intentions of dictators even more.” The debate was enlivened by the intervention of a delegate of the Navigators’ and Engineers’ Officers Union, who declared, “These are days 01. pirates on the high. seas. Our merchantmen are attacked by pirates who have not even the chivalry to nail to the mast the black flag with the skull and crossbones.”
Never in its history had England more need for her power of defence, Captain Coombes told the Congress.
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Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 298, 13 September 1937, Page 9
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321LABOUR SUPPORT Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 298, 13 September 1937, Page 9
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