MANN AND LLEWELLYN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 16, 30 December 1932, Page 7

MANN AND LLEWELLYN

RELEASE URGED. MEMORIAL TO PREMIER. (United Press Association—By CableCopyright.) (Received 30, 12.30 pan.) London, Dec. 29. Mr. George Lansbury and two colleagues are travelling to Lossiemouth carrying a memorial urging tho release of Mann and Llewellyn, The grounds of the conviction, says the memorial, are in the nature of a persecution and are alien to the modem temper. It is signed by a majority of the prominent Labour figures, including ex-Ministers. Mr. MacDonald replied to the telegram announcing the departure of the delegation: “The question has been fully debated in the House of Commons but the Premier is always willing to receive friends on a personal visit. Nevertheless, he must leave on December 30 to keep engagements.” Mr. Lansbury hopes to arrive at noon.

Tom Mann and Emfys Llewellyn, secretary of the National Unemployed Workers, were charged at Bow Street Police Court with disturbing the peace and inciting demonstrations. They were each bound over for 12 months in sureties of £3OO, in default two months’ imprisonment. They preferred imprisonment. The general council of the Trades Union Congress later wrote to the Rt. Hon. Ramsay MacDonald protesting against the imprisonment of Mann and Llewellyn, describing the case as a travesty ’of justice and a political persecution, saying that they have been punished under obsolete statutes framed over a century ago for the purpose of the suppression of poli. tical opinions in totally different circumstances from to-day’s. The council, while condemning attempts to incite unemployed to violence declared that such sentences were likely to imperil the public peace, and urges the immediate release of the men. Tom Mann, the English Labour leader, has long been associated with the trade union movement. He visited New Zealand in 1902 and 1908. and also spent much time in Australia. He later decided to organise a similar movement to French Syndicalism in England. Afterward he paid visits to the United States of America, South Africa and Russia, and finally became a confirmed Communist.