ELOQUENT APPEAL TO REASON

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20721, 7 May 1937, Page 9

ELOQUENT APPEAL TO REASON

MR BALDWIN’S SPEECH REGARDED AS LAST CONTRIBUTION PLEA FOR INDUSTRIAL PEACE British Official Wireless (Received May 6, 6.30 pm.) RUGBY, May 5. In what he evidently regarded and the press has signalised as his last big speech in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin), intervening early in the debate on the threatened national coal strike, made an eloquent appeal for a peaceful settlement. In opening the debate the Leader of the Opposition (Mr C. R. Attlee) asked the Government to bring every possible influence to bear to settle the dispute, and he suggested that if a strike occurred on May 22, the House should be called together in advance of the reassembly date of May 24. He said that although the immediate issue concerned only a few workers hr one village In Nottinghamshire, half a million miners were prepared to face hardships and loss on behalf of the principle of recognition. “Reason Will Prevail" The Prime Minister assured the House that the Government was not indifferent to what was happening, and he himself had been in dally touch with the Secretary for Mines (Captain H. F. Crookshank) for a long time. The present dispute called for delicate and sympathetic handling, but he was not without hope that reason would prevail, because there was a feeling throughout the country that the issue was so reduced that it ought not to be allowed to lead to a strike. Mr Baldwin said that the whole world had its eyes on London, where it was represented for the rejoicings associated with the age-old ceremony of the Coronation, which was so near at hand. He appealed to the handful of men on both sides, with whom peace or war in the Haworth colliery dispute rested, to do the thing which would rejoice the hearts of all—to rend and to dissipate the dark cloud that the threatened strike held over the country—and to show the world that British democracy knew how to practise the acts of peace in a world of strife. The Prime Minister’s appeal made a great impression in the House and it produced a dramatic effect after a statement by the Secretary for Mines. Government Help Sought Mr Tom Williams (Labour), himself an ex-miner, said that if the response to the appeal was what it ought to be, Haworth would quickly settle down to the happy condition which obtained at Bentley, where the same company owned the colliery and for twenty years had never had a strike. MINERS’ DISPUTE DANGER OF NATIONAL STRIKE United Press Association—Bv Klar’eic Telegraph- Copyright LONDON, May 5. The Miners’ Federation has issued a proclamation, pointing out that the Nottinghamshire colliery trouble has not been settled, and urging miners to hand in their notices as evidence of their determination to fight for justice. This might or might not mean a national stoppage, but further dictation would not be tolerated.