RED DICTATOR.

Franklin Times, Volume XXII, Issue 57, 18 May 1932, Page 3

RED DICTATOR.

SENTENCED TO 15 MONTHS'

IMPRISONMENT.

Twenty-nine persons, who had been found guilty of unlawful assembly at Mardy, a mining township known as "Little Moscow," were brought up for sentence at Cardiff (Wales) Assizes recently. The case arose from an attempt to prevent a distress for rates from being levied on a miner's house.

Police-Inspector William Rees said that the ringleader was Arthur Horner, who had assumed the role of a "dictator." During the coal strike of 1921 his conduct was most revolutionary, and he terrorised the officials. On one occasion he compelled the stove workers at a local colliery to withdraw the fires, thereby flooding the pits. "Horner," continued the inspector, "has paid frequent visits to Russia, and it is assumed that he is being well paid by Russia for his efforts to destroy the peace of this country. Before his advent Mard was a prosperous industrial mining district. The colleries employed 2500 men, of whom the majority earned £9 a week. Now the place is almost derelict. Respectable miners have been compelled to dispose of their houses, which cost £250 to £3OO, for £5. This is all attributed to Horner and a few of his disciples." Horner was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment; the others to lesser terms.