LATE NEWS

Southland Times, Issue 24106, 20 April 1940, Page 6

LATE NEWS

MINERS BOYCOTT MR MENZIES

Attempt To Appeal For Loyalty PRIME MINISTER TO ACCEPT CHALLENGE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received April 20, 2 a.m.) SYDNEY, April 19. Coal miners and officials organized and carried out a boycott of the meeting arranged by the Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) at Kurri today. Instead, the miners followed their leaders to the local sportsground, where they listened to addresses on the need for solidarity. Mr Menzies, however, took the platform at the local School of Arts, where more than 2000 private citizens and business men gave him a rousing reception. Mr Menzies mentioned that pressure had been brought to bear on the chairman preventing him from presiding at his meeting. He expressed regret that the miners had seen fit to boycott his address in a district which hitherto had been traditionally loyal. He emphasized that he had not come to make threats, but merely to appeal to the miners to appreciate their responsibilities in the most crucial time of the Empire’s history and to determine to put the things that really mattered first. Mr Menzies compared the lot of the men in action in Norway, France and elsewhere with the conditions which the coal miners sought to bring about here and declared that a coal strike in the present circumstances was a betrayal of the true interests of Australia. He told the meeting that he was prepared to accept the miners’ challenge, which was tantamount to defiance of the Commonwealth Government. He would go to the sports ground and seek to deliver the address which he intended to deliver at Kurri. He left the hall amid prolonged cheering.

HARDY’S MEN RETURN TO BRITAIN SAILORS WEAR NORWEGIAN SUITS (Received April 20, 2 a.m.) LONDON, April 19. A number of survivors of the destroyer Hardy, who were thought to have gone inland in Norway, arrived at a Scottish port, wearing Norwegian caps, ski-ing suits and fishermen's sea boots. One seaman said that when the Hardy was beached many jumped into the sea and scrambled up the jagged rocks. The villagers gave them spare clothing. “We stayed in Norway for four days and watched the second great battle in Narvik Fiord,” he said. “The Warspite and her escort of destroyers played Hell with the Germans.” The Hardy’s men later made contact with the British naval force.