THE CONSERVATIVES AND THE CLOSED SHOP
SIR,—In his article on "The Closed Shop" which appeared in your issue of September 27th Mr. Dingle Foot wrote:- " A public monopoly, owing a duty to the public, is using its position to set up a private monopoly which owes no duty to anyone except its own members. . . . Because, for some reason he (a qualified worker) is persona non grata, his application (for member- ship) is rejected by the local branch of the Union concerned. A miner, for example, who is refused admission to the National Union of Mineworkers will become, at any rate so far as the mining industry is concerned, an industrial outlaw."
In the Daily Telegraph of October 5th Sir David Maxwell Fyfe is reported as having addressed the Conservative Conference at Blackpool in these terms : - " That would mean a complete invasion of the freedom of choice and might lead to a state of industrial outlawry for certain people, whose only fault is that they were not persona grata with the Union or some officials. With the growth of a nationalised industry they. had a public monopoly on the side of ownership, and on the side of organised workers a private monopoly which was forcing the public monopoly to support it."
Sir David is evidently a close student of your pages.—Yours faithfully, House of Commons.
FRANK BYERS.
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