FOLLY OF THE STRIKE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12456, 26 May 1926, Page 6

FOLLY OF THE STRIKE

“SUBMERGED THE REAL ISSUE” TWENTY MILLIONS LOST IN WAGES MR CLYNES’S CONDEMNATION By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, Mdy 24. Mr J. R. Clynes, M.P., in an outspoken condemnation of the general strike, in his presidential address to the General Workers’ Conference at Bournemouth, said that from the outset he had opposed the strike. He had submitted alternative proposals for financial support for the miners which, supplemented by industrial action, would most likely have been effective, and would have resisted the mine-own-ers’ attack. A mere fraction of the £20,000,000 lost in wages in strike time would, if spent in wise political action, have placed the workers in possession of the enormous power which the Government was able to direct against them. Such a strike submerged the real issue. A national strike could never be complete. If it were, there would be instant starvation and the first victims would be the poorest of the population. Riots and disorders would not feed them, and an appeal to force would be met by superior force.