27 SEPTEMBER 1926
Towards the end of the final meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva, news was received that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies had approved of the return of Argentina to the league. During the meeting Viscount Cecil referred to the difference between British and French mentalities as one of the difficulties of the work of the League.
No developments in the coal deadlock took place during the week-end. A national delegate conference of the Miners’ Federation has been summoned to meet on Wednesday, and the Miners’ Executive hope to meet the General Council of the Trade Union Congress to-morrow.
Mr A. J. Cook, the miners’ secretary, speaking at Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean, said they had reached the limit of their concessions. He would rather that every pit should shut down than that men should be driven back under conditions of longer hours and lower wages. At a previous meeting, near Radstock, in Somerset, Mr Cook said, “We have got to compromise now.”
Mr J. H. Thomas, M.P., addressing a meeting of railway workers at Manchester, pleaded for goodwill and co-operation in the railway service. He advocated the principle that in demanding the best from the other side they must be prepared to give the best in return.
Mr Frank Hodges, secretary to the International Miners’ Federation, has carried his controversy with Mr A. J. Cook a stage further. In a statement Mr Hodges asks the miners to exercise their inviolable right to a ballot vote, and to declare to the world that they are not mere pawns in the game.