TORIES THE TOOLS.

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1926, Page 5

TORIES THE TOOLS.

OF COAL OWNERS. British Labour’s Censure. (Received December 9 at 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 8. Ju the House of Commons, Air Kam- , ay AlacDonald (Leader of the Opposi- , ion) moved a motion of eensure on j he Government on its handling of the | oal dispute. lie said that not ] ven one of the Conservative t mendments to his motion failed ■ o congratulate the Afinistry on what f I had done, lie recalled that Chelms- j ord electorate recently changed its , ormer Conservative majority of two j liousand into a minority of one thou- | rind. It was in that form that the Op- ( osition would like to test this motion | -at the ballot box. Air Baldwin, he ] aid, had alienated the confidence f hich, in 1924, had brought the county to his foot. The Ministry had ailed to get anything advantageous tit of all the money spent on the oval commission on coal. Even Air Ivan Wiliams (coal owners’ leader), i his offen-sivenoss, imet defied the übinel. and Mr Cook's incompetence ad baffled the Cabinet. The Cabinet eeame a more spectator, interfering lily as file owners asked it to. The mnitrv had lost live -niincrred millions terliug. While the owners wore being 1 iven the time to win, the miners had een taught that might is right. Exremism,, he said, could be the only o ruit of the Cabinet's policy. r It was, added Air AlacDonald, the uty of the Government er. once to go i the country, to t«n-re the doom lint it had earned. The Premier, Air Baldwin, was greet- t d with a hostile Labour demonstra- i ion when he rose. He said: <( I shall :i e quite prepared to go to the country a i good time.” He declared that Air lac Donald’s first, task after the holi-' ay was over was to rarner a “shop -indow’’ motion for the irresponsible® t the dictation of Air Cook, whose ilk had prolonged the coal struggle, nd had brought an igncmlnons disas■r. Air Cook, declared the Premier, ad successively let down rue Labour 'arty, the Trade Union Congress, and lie coal miners. Air Cook—perhaps J nintcntionally, lint through his hys- 1 orient condition —had put into his, Mr Baldwin’s) month the words that I all wages would have to fall,” hercas what he (Baldwin) had said —■ i a private conversation —was that, if ' n industry could not pay living v ■ages, the alternatives were closing x own or a reduction in wages. The I 1 rst crucial blunder made by the mini’s’ leaders was their rejection of the arauel coal report. The men’s loyalty nd fortitude was a tragedy. It was xploited by incompetent leadership, he Premier criticised the Labour 'arty’s lack of courage in not pointig the error out, when knowing that ho men were being fooled by a logon. The Labour Party was on the orns of a dilemma. »r. must either lirow in its lot with extremism, or it mst cut loose from rr. Extremism ( light win them a few industrial seats, ut it would never win them the conn- , Mr Lloyd George blamed the eight j ours bill for prolonging the dispute, , ut he. asks why Mr MacDonald had j ot devoted a single sentence to the , mst important reference in his moion. namely, the nationalisation o. the c lines. Air Lloyd George said he could ot vote for such a proposal. Mr W. Churchill (Chancellor of the , Ixchequcr) was greeted with Labour , asses He said that Mr AlacDonald t ,ad referred to Air Cook’s incompeence, hut. ho (Mr Churchill) was loubtful whether incompetence was an xhaustive description of Mr Cook, le noticed, however, that Air Alaclo,mid had allowed Mr Cook to get as ar as Alosedw before he had uttered be word If Mr Cook wore ineompeent whv should the . Government be .ensured’ Mr Churchill ended by de,routing the association of the Trade -nion Movement with ordinary party ,olitiCS ' . reier-ted by 339 ’ The motion was lP 3 ffTei y rotes to 131. — (’()OK IK RUSSiA. ]’ REP A R ING POP ANOTHER STRIKE. ’’’LONDON, Dec. 9. | The Daily Telegraph’s Riga correspondent reports that, after a fourliours’ speech from Mr Cook (British Minors’ Federation Secretary) the Trade Union Commission of the Communist International in Moscow decided to start preparations for The next British coal s.rike, and to establish an international fund for this purpose without delay.