The South Wales Miners' Federation has taken a ballot of
the men on the question whether men of military age who have entered the coal mines since the war began, and unmarried men of military age who were employed them before the war, should now be called up for military service. The return up to Tuesday night showed that 69,037 men had voted in favour of releasing their fellow.. workers for the Army, and only 17,728 men had voted against the proposal, of which the Federation as a body had approved. The figures show conclusively that, as we had always believed, the Pacificist element in South Wales was small though it made a great deal of noise, and that the South Wales miners as a class are as loyal to their country as any other working men. Such trouble as them has been-was due to the well-known reluctance of Trade Unionists, like the• members of other Societies, to take an active part in the ordinary business of their Unions. A handful of Pacificist intriguers were thus able to gain an undue share of the control of the miners' organization.
Previous page
