CANDID EXCHANGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 February 1926, Page 5

CANDID EXCHANGES

THOMAS-COOK CONTROVERSY.

RAILWAYMEN V. MINERS.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

LONDON, January 29.

Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., in a pungent letter to the “Daily Herald,” severely criticises the miners’ laeder Mr. Thomas says: “Like a majority of the members of the movement, I have long ceased to treat Mr. Cook seriously. I only regret that a , great organisation like the Miners’ Federation should day by day have its case ruined by his childish outbursts. When Mr. Cook presumes to advise other unions, and to criticise the Railwaymen’s Conference, he should remember that the great mass of trade unionists do not judge leaders by frothy orations. but by their deliverance of the goods. lam quite content to allow a comparison of my services to the railwaymen with his to the miners.”

Mr. Cook, replying to Mr. Thomas’s letter, says: “I cannot claim to be an after-dinner speaker like Mr. Thomas at the functions which he attends) nor a leader of fashion, but 1 do claim to be a class-conscious fighter,, for the workers, and shall accept instructions only from the class I represent. The chief ambition of Mr. Thomas apparently is to be a leader oi fashion at dinners given by the enemies of the working classes. It isn’t mine, and thank heaven, I made no speeches which would look well in comic papers. Mr. Thomas says that I am no longer taken seriously by a majority in'J/ie Labour movement. / am afraid that Thomas is out of touch therewith. Mr. Thomas, along with Dukes and other noble Lords,, has long wished me in a warm place. I hope I shan’t go there-” The “Sunday Express” says that Mr. Thomas, commenting, said: “My letter gave, my opinion of Mr. Cook’s qualities as a leader. Mr. Cook’s statements about me don’t matter.” , UNRULY COLLEGIANS.

LONDON, January 30.

Undergraduates vainly attempted to rush the Corn Exchange at Oxford, in which Mr. Cook made a speech on the coal situation. Tire students threw stones on the roof, and smashed the windows. They also exploded fireworks and sang the National’ Anthem. _ . Mr. Cook, who was inside, said: — “Our miners could sing better than that lot I lam trying to prevent-a crisis. We don’t want the mines for the miners, but for the whole nation. The Government say that they* will form a strike-breaking organisation, but bayonets cannot cut coal.”

While there was a decoy taxi cab outside the door, which was surrounded by the undergraduates, Mr.. Cook left by another exit. He then crossed a road, and passed through a private house, where the Chief Constable joined him at the back door with another taxi cab, in which he proceeded to the station without being molested. HOURS OF WORK. LONDON, February 30. Britain, following on correspondence with Belgium, France and Italy and Germany, has decided o call an early conference of these Powers at London to consider the possibility of arriving at an international agreement for regulating the hours of work in industry-