MYSTERY OF EX-LABOUR LEADER’S DEATH

Northern Advocate, 4 February 1936, Page 4

MYSTERY OF EX-LABOUR LEADER’S DEATH

(Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, February 2

An ex-Labour leader, Robert Williams, was found dead in a gas-filled room. He participated in the “Black Friday” episode in which transport workers, railwaymen and miners failed to agree on general policy, the miners declaring that they had been deserted.

Subsequently, Williams as chairman of the Labour party conference in 1926, condemned direct action, thereby giving a lead to trade unionism, which jvas then not appreciated. As an indirect result he lost his seat on the Labour executive.

A friend suggests that Williams was heartbroken over something which he refused to discuss.

Williams on January 31 had appealed for police protection following anonymous telephone threats to “bump him off, beat him up and kidnap him.”

side, so great was the fury of the

waves, and there would inevitably

have been casualties in the dropping of the boats on the sheltered side, for even there' the sea was strong and

bumpy. Then there was additional danger of landing on a rocky coast.” Sea Captain’s Opinion.

A retired sea captain, with much practical experience of the New Zealand coast, ventured an opinion that the Rangatira ran into an obstruction by making a faster trip from South than had been supposed. There was always a set of about li to 2 knots up the east coast of the South Island, and the wind all night had possibly increased the rate of the set beyond calculations.

Radio Direction Beacon Wanted.

Captain Macindoe, secretary of the Merchant Service Guild of New Zealand, expresses the view that the mishap would not have occurred had a radio direction beacon been installed on the shore. The ship was fitted with the necessary apparatus. What use was it, without the necessary apparatus on shore? He mentioned, however, that it had" a value, in that it took a bearing of the other *ferry steamer every night and so obviated all risk of collision. v /

In regard to currents in Cook Strait, he said experienced men said that no one had been able to understand the sets of the current in these waters.