COAL MINES COUNCIL

Grey River Argus, 5 August 1940, Page 6

COAL MINES COUNCIL

Mr McLagan’s Reply to Mr

Broadfoot

[To The Editor].

Sir, —My attention has been called to the remarks made in Parliament by Mr W. J. Broadfoot, M.P., concerning the Coal Mines Council and especially myself.

I have met Mr Broadfoot on two occasions, the first being when at his own request he met the members of the Miners’ National Council in November, 1939, and asked them to buy for £16,000 the assets of a coal-min-ing company in which he was then interested. A few questions from tne members of th e Miners’ Council suificed to reveal Mr Broadfoot’s amazing lack of knowledge of mining, ana also elicited the fact that the blocx of workable coal on the area in question belonged to th e State and not no his company, whose mining proposition appeared to consist of a stone fault that had been encountered i;i the course of the company’s mining operations. The humorous aspect of a “mining mug” trying to induce them to buy that kind of mining proposition appealed to the members of the Miners’ Council, who have forgotten a hundred times more about mining than Mr Broadfoot will ever be capable of learning, and they made him the butt of a few good-natured witticisms. My second meeting with Mr Broad- | foot’took place when, on leaving the last meeting of the War Council, 1 was effusively greeted in a corridor of the House by a person who wanted to know if I remembered him. 1 courteously confessed that I did not. After the inquirer had departed without disclosing his identity I was told that it was Mr Broadfoot.

There may be a connection between these meetings and Mr Broadfoot's remarks in Parliament. As Mr Broadfoot said, I hold a number of positions. Had he been inspired by a regard for the facts, lie would have added that most of them are unpaid positions. Among the unpaid positions is that of member oi the War Council. Mr Broadfoot has stubbornly refused to accept an unpaid position on the War Council, i

wonder if a position in the War Cabinet at £l3OO a year would be equally distasteful to him I have two paid positions —secretary of the United Mine Workers and member of the Coal Mines Council. The latter is a part-time position, and when serving on the Coal Mines Council and being paid for so doing I do not draw my salary as secretary of th e United Mine Workers. Will Mr Broadfoo.t terl New Zealand whether he similarly relinquishes his parliamentary salary when acting as a solicitor and being paid for so Coing?

As Mr Broadfoot’s only qualification to criticise the Coal Mines Council consists of the fact that he was a leading shareholder in a now-de-funct coal-mining company that flopped badly, it would be superfluous to quote tthe- .contrary /opinion of those capable of forming a correct judgment. That his remarks concerning me could be made from the depths of his political intelligence and the safety of his parliamentary privilege without an immediate withdrawal and apology becomng necessary would seem to indicate a defect in th e forms of procedure of the House of Representatives. A copy of this letter is being sent to the gentleman. Yours faithfully,

A. McLAGAN.