MINE DISASTER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 100, 30 March 1937, Page 7

MINE DISASTER

NINE AMERICANS KILLED. NEW YORK, March 29. An explosion in a coal mine, said to be the safest in the world, at Dubois (Pennsylvania) killed two men, and seven members of a rescue squad were killed by a second blast 45 minutes later. Five bodies have been removed. Fires are raging in dozens of places. Gas hindered the efforts of the rescuers. THE GRESFORD TRAGEDY. SUMMONSES SERVED ON COMPANY. LONDON, March 28. As a sequel to the Gresford colliery disaster, when 265 lives were lost in September, 1934, summonses have been served against the company and also against William Bonsall, the manager, Harold Thomas, foreman, and others for alleged breaches of the Coal Mines Regulation Act.

THE LAST TIME DOWN

GRESFORD PIT TRAGEDY

“AVe shall go down some day and never come up. We shall be blown to hell,” said a miner as he was about to go to work in Gresford colliery on the morning of the disaster in 1934, in which he and 260 others lost their lives. This incident was related in the House of Commons by a Labour member during the discussion on the report of the court of inquiry. The debate was initiated by Mr David Grenfell, formerly a Glamorganshire miner. He said that a study ot the report impelled serious disquiet about the whole machinery for supervision and inspection which Parliament had been building up for nearly a century. He felt that the inspection at Gresford had proved ineffective. Mr George Griffiths, a Yorkshire Labour member, told the following story: “On September 9, 1934, I met a man who was in the same class at school with me. He was catching a train to work in the Gresford pit and one of my relations said to him, ‘You are going down for the last time, Jack.’ The Friday night shift is known as ‘the last time.'' This great big smart fellow said, ‘Yes, we shall do down for the last time some day and never come up. We shall he blown to hell.’ That man is down in Gresford pit today. He knew what was happening there, and lie was sacrificed for the sake of profit.” Captain Peake (Con.. Leeds), speaking as a coal owner, said conditions at Gresford had made a disaster inevitable sooner or later.