COAL STRIKE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 14 June 1926, Page 7

COAL STRIKE

COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES. TO PREVENT ITS FAILURE. COMPULSORY CONTRIBUTIONS. BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 10.55 a.m. to-day. LONDON, June 12. The Riga correspondent of The Times states: The Third Internationale, declaring that the failure of the British coal strike would ;be a severe blow to the revolutionary movement, has ordered the workers to continue their maximum financial support, for which compulsory deductions from their wages will be made. It has also drawn up a list of immediate tasks in connection with the strike for British Communists, including the enlistment of the unemployed, the publication of a Communist daily paper, to placard walls with news bulletins, the stimulation of Communism in all British industries, including shipping. The newspaper Pravada declares: “Britain’s black heart has already ceased beating, and the British Empire is sinking as surely as did the liner Titanic.” —Times. SOME MEN RETURNING. ■ MOVEMENT EXTENDING. LONDON, June 12. Nearly 2000 more miners have returned to the Warwickshire mines, and the movement is extending to other coalfields in Nottinghamshire, while in Lanarkshire many are working overtime. Several South Staffordshire owners have offered to reopen on the old terms, Earl Dudley promising a year’s agreement or the eventual national agreement, whichever is the most favourable to the miners. One thousand men have returned at two collieries near Bewdley. There were angry demonstrations against the workers in one or two localities, but the situation generally is calm. MR. BALDWIN’S LAMENT. LONDON, June 12. Mr. Stanley Baldwin, addressing 15,000 unionists at a fete at Chippenham, said he wanted to see the British Labour movement free from allied foreign heresy, and pursued and developed on English lines. He hoped the time would soon come for more enlightened and statesmanlike minds among both the employers and the trade union leaders, to meet and discuss a new industrial policy with whatever help the Government could give. Ho lamented that both sides of the coal industry had thus far rejected the arbitration he offered. MONEY FROM RUSSIA. MORE' SENT BY SOVIET. LONDON, June 12. In connection with the British note to Moscow in regard to the Soviet’s offer of money to the Trade Union Congress during the general strike, the Trade Union Congress has sent a letter to Mr. Baldwin denying that it ever received money from the Soviet Government, and most strongly protesting against the attempts to misrepresent the efforts of the Russian trade unionists to help the British workers to pursue legitimate trade union activities, and to use them in such a way as to seriously endanger the. relationship between His Majesty’s Government and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. The acting-Chaxge d’Affaires at the Soviet embassy has issued a statement denying the Home Secretary’s declaration in the House of Commons that the Soviet Government had sent money to Britain to support the general strike. MOSCOW, June 12. The Soviet trade uniones have so far contributed 3,626,000 roubles to the Miners’ Federation in Britain. BALLOT AMONG MINERS SUGGESTED. LONDON, June 12. Mr A. J. Cook, secretary to the Miners’ Federation, who is touring Cornwall, said that if Mr Baldwin attempts legislation to force longer hours upon the miners it will be the start of a British revolution. He added: “I am prepared to have an independent ballot among the miners to sec whether they will take longer hours or low r er wages or not. ’ ’