"HUNGER STRIKE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22240, 15 October 1935, Page 9

"HUNGER STRIKE"

MINERS STILL UNDERGROUND MANY NOW ACCEPTING FOOD (Received October 14, 6.5 p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 13 The " hunger strike " of miners continues at the Nine Mile Point Colliery, South Wales. A crowd of 2000 people at the pithead sang songs and hymns accompanied by the colliery band. Food was sent underground but was returned, the strikers declaring that they would hold out until death.

A young miner left the pit at his mother's request, owing to the death of his grandfather, and the crowd chaired him to his home.

The management of the mine, which refuses to negotiate until the men come to the surface, asserts that there are only 71 men underground. A later message said many of the men were eating food sent down the mine by relatives, transforming the " hunger strike " into a " stay-in " strike, which the men declare they will maintain for a month. They are being pestered by beetles and huge rats, of which they killed hundreds until their lamps were exhausted. The only light in the mine is the electric light in the roadways. The South Wales Miners' Federation has decided that unless non-unionists, against the employment of whom the men are striking, are withdrawn by 6.45 a.m. to-morrow, 1800 colliers at Blaenavon will strike in sympathy.