TROOPS READY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20620, 22 November 1941, Page 7

TROOPS READY

STRIKE AMERICAN MINES SHOOTING AFFRAYS THREE MEN WOUNDED (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Nov. 21, 2.45 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 20. Three men were shot and wounded but not seriously in a fresh outburst of violence in the La Fayette County coalfields. Non-strikers attempting to go to work clashed with the pickets. About 100 shots were fired. A later fusillade of shots struck the mine superintendent’s car when he drove through the picket lines, but he escaped injury. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 miners have walked out of the commercial collieries in sympathy with the 53,000 strikers from the captive mines. The outlook for a settlement is at present poor. The C. 1.0. convention at Detroit passed a resolution stating that the C. 1.0. would utilise to the utmost degree Government mediation facilities and do all in its power to cooperate with the Government and industry to achieve the maximum defence production. The convention appealed to the Government and industry to recognise that Labour’s participation in the formulation and administration of the nation’s policies was essential in the endeavour to defeat Hitlerism. Defence officials in Washington hinted to-night as reports came in of the shootings in the coal strike and the spreading sympathy with the strikers that legislation would be submitted promptly for a Government seizure of closed mines, authorising Federal operation and forbidding labour leaders or pickets to interfere with production. The defence spokesman said that 50,000 soldiers were standing by ready to intervene, if necessary, but the Government did not want to use troops. The Government, however, would not give in.