LABOUR CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20222, 7 October 1927, Page 9

LABOUR CONFERENCE

THE MINERS’ DETERMINATION. ■FIGHT THROUGH BALLOT BOX. (Press Association—By Telegraph —Copyright.) LONDON, October 5. Mr Ramsay MacDonald, in a remarkable speech when moving a motion deploring the state of the coal industry, said that he had been accused of grovelling during the strike because he had hoped that the employers would show a fine attitude of mind. “ When I see clouds threatening the destruction of our men and women, if I can get accommodation by going on my knees, I shall do so, and not feel that I am forfeiting my respect; but, that having been done, I confess that I am a disillusioned man. Henceforth we shall give you not only our tongues, but our brains. Nationalisation is the only cure -” Mr Herbert Smith thanked Mr MacDonald for such a message, and added: “ We miners are going to be the missionaries of fight through the ballot box, not through the stomachs of our women and children. We shall not accept Mr Lloyd George’s chloroform.’’ —A. and N.Z. Cable. A WILD SCENE. “THE FOOL OF THE PARTY.” LONDON, October 5. (Received Oct. 6, at 7 p.m.) There was a wild scene at the Blackpool Labour Party Conference, when women delegates attempted to make birth control a party plank, against the decision of the executive. Immediately a delegate opposed the proposal ‘‘ as’ a member of an Irish Catholic family.” Feeling ran high when a remark by Mr Jack Jones, M.P., angered the conference. Mr A. J. Cook rushed to the platform, shouting, “ You fool, you big fool; you’re the fool of the Labour Party. Withdraw.” Mr Jones,’in refusing to withdraw, invited the delegates to throw him out. ■' They can’t muzzle me in the Commons, ami I’won’t bo muzzled here,’’ he said. Pandemonium reigned until Mr Jones , withdrew without an apology. Eventually the conference defeated by 2,885,000 votes to 225,000, the attempt to refer the subject back to the executive. —A. and N.Z. Cable.