STAY-DOWN STRIKE

Evening Star, Issue 22248, 28 January 1936, Page 11

STAY-DOWN STRIKE

DRAMATIC SCENES AT PIT-HEAD The “ stay-in ” strike at Nine-Mile Point colliery;, Ynysddu, Mon., ended with dramatic suddenness when 184 miners, some of whom had been for over seven days nearly a mile underground, came to the surface to find thousands of cheering friends and relatives waiting at the pit head to greet them. These men had decided to stay down the mine as a protest against “ imported ” non-federation labour being employed at the. colliery. Amazing scenes were witnessed at the pit head as the men came up. Thousands of people crowded the roadway and stretched up on to the hillside waiting for the men to appear. They stood six and seven deep on both sides of the pathways leading down to the mine. News had gone round that the men were at last coming up. Swiftly it spread to the villages around, and the waiting crowd grew rapidly. As soon as they caught a glimpse of the first of the men coming up, wild cheering, shouts of welcome, and the singing of songs broke out all round the mine. Thj change in the spirits of the crowd; was remarkable. Earlier in the day and throughout the week they had been a tense, waiting crowdnow they were laughing happily, some of the women almost hysterically. In small groups, and one by one ; the men marched up the pathways to the road. Private cars and charabancs had been rushed to the colliery to take the men to their homes, and doctors and ambulance men ,were at the pit head in case any of them needed aid. Many of the men, though enfeebled by the long days and nights spent underground, refused help, and walked unaided to the waiting cats. In others, however, the ' reaction was painfully apparent. A number shivered as they walked, and friends rushed forward to place" overcoats and old sacks over their shoulders, and hurried them to their homes.

Now that the men have come up, the story of how them lived below has become known—how they tore up the stalls of the pit ponies to make boards to sleep on; how they held religious meetings and concerts; hovy they _ organised games of quoits with fittings from the water pipes and blast pipes; and how they lived on sandwiches sent down by their friends. Here is one of the stories .told by Arthur Regan, of Islwyn road, Wattsville, who was down Rock Vein pit, the coldest of the three pits at Nine* Mile Point:—

“ On Monday and Tuesday we had finished the food that we had in our boxes in the morning,” he _ said. “ After that I had one sandwich at 9.30 at night. “On Tuesday I had two sandwiches. On Wednesday the food was better, and on Thursday and Friday there were plenty of sandwiches. All the time we only had sandwiches. “We stayed in the stables,- sleeping on boards which were got by breaking up the pony stalls, and from the food bins.

“ We had religious meetings conducted by two miners, one of whom is being ordained next week. , We used to sing hymns—‘ Lead, Kindly Light ’ and ‘ Abide With Me.’ We had beautiful prayers, too —-as good as any that the finest preacher in the land could give. “ Sometimes as late as 12 o’clock at night we had concerts. We used to get the men to get up on the pit tubs and give their turns. “ We played quoits on the pit bottom. The ‘quoits’ were metal ones used for connecting blast pipes and water pipes. We used to pick sides and have competitions to help pass the time. “We heard early to-day that there had been an executive meeting last night. Then the news came saying that everything was settled satisfactorily, and we Began to pack up. “ The federation officials came down and our chairman gave us his assurance that everything was satisfactory, so we decided to come up. He said we had obtained a victory. We sang hymns and offered up a prayer or thanks for the way in which thing# had ended, and then we left the pit.” The chain of events which led up to the decision of the men to discontinue their “ stay-in ” began with a meeting of the leaders of the federation. NO “IMPORTED” LABOUR. They had before them a letter front the owners of the colliery containing an assurance that there would be ho victimisation as a result of the situation. In addition they had received a verbal assurance that ho “ imported ’ non-federation labour would be employed. .