CUT SHORT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 4

CUT SHORT

REMARKS BY UNEMPLOYED

DEPUTATION TO MAYOR

(By Ttltgraph.) ' (Special to "The Evening Post.") ! CHMBTCHURCH, This Day. The interview which Mr. E. L. Hills leader of the unemployed, had with the Mayor, the Rev. J, K. Archer, yesterday morning terminated abruptly owing to the refusal of the Mayor to hear any more speeches after he and Messrs. Sullivan and Beanland had replied to Mr. Hills. After the Mayor had made his concluding remark, Mr. R. B. Owen said he wanted to say a few words. The Mayor: "I cannot have a lot of speeches, Mr. Owen; the deputation has stated its case and I have replied We cannot go on indefinitely." Mr. Owen: "Very well, then I won't speak." "Might I crave two minutes?" Mr. Hills asked. The Mayor: "I will not hear another speech. I have heard all you had to say, and I refuse to hear another speech. That is the end of the thing." ■ Mr. H. Worrall said that he quite undesstood the Mayor's right to close the meeting, but he had been invited to be prosent, and he wished to make an explanation. "I ngree entirely with what you have said and with the remarks of the Deputy Mayor. I wish to dissociate myself from the remarks of I Comrade Beanland," he added. The Mayor interjected that that was a matter for Mr. Beanland, but Mr Worrall said that he had never agreed with Mr. Beanland that the men should Jgo out and work at under the award [ rate of wages. He entirely disagreed [ with that remark. , . j Mr. Beanland said that he was not backing up the Government in paying less than the award rate of wages, but he considered that some of the single men would have to accept those wages so as to help the others who were unemployed. Mr. Owen informed the reporters subsequently that he had intended to state that the River Improvement Fund had amounted to £131 15s Bd, of which £107 0s lid had been paid out in wages, leaving a balance of £24 14s 9d. He considered that the council should pay a subsidy when that fund was amalgamated with, the Citizens' Committee's Fuad.