THE JOCKEYS’ ASSOCIATION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17894, 14 June 1920, Page 9

THE JOCKEYS’ ASSOCIATION.

SECRETARY REPLIES TO SIR G. CLIFFORD. (Per press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 12. Mr Sheath, secretary of the Jockeys Association, in-an official statement in reply to Sir George Clifford’s reasons lor not' recognising the Association, says that it was news to him that 90 jockeys had resigned from the Association. The only person under the rules of. the Association who could receive resignations was himself, and he had not received anywhere near that number. He had not had an opportunity of perusing the list in the hands of Sir George Clifford, but the fact that Sir George Clifford produced it proved conclusively that owners and trainers were parties to the resignations, and confirmed the statements of individual jockeys that they had been threatened with the severest punishment possible to inflict, namely, the refusal of owners to allow them to ride their horses. No jockey, Mr Sheath emphatically stated, had resigned of his own free will. Many who resigned had since rejoined, stating that they would risk any punishment. The delegates at the conference represented 226 jockeys, but even if the Association had only 15 members, the law said clearly that the other party must meet them and discuss the dispute. If the owners and trainers refused to discuss the dispute, the onus was on them for defying the law All this was put before the owners and trainers’ delegates at the conference, but. Mr Sheath added, Sir George Clifford had said distinctly in reply that they would not recognise the Association as at present constituted, and that they would not recognise or confer with any association of jockeys