30 OCTOBER 1920, Page 2

The intimate connexion between the extreme Labour men and Sinn

Fein is well illustrated by the case of the Protestant carpenters employed in the Belfast shipyards. The executive of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, to which they belong, resolved on May 27th last that " the organized workers " ought "to refuse to manufacture or transport munitions of war for Ireland or for Poland." When Sinn Fein caused the murder of Colonel Smyth, and stirred up riots in Londonderry, the Belfast workers in July last drove all Sinn Feiners out of the shipyards. The Carpenters' executive then proposed that the yards should be closed. When order was restored, the Protestant workers agreed to work with Roman Catholics if they were not Sinn Feiners. The Carpenters' executive, however, decreed that the Belfast shipyards were to be put on the black list, and threatened to expel all members of the Union who worked in the yards. The Protestant carpenters, finding the executive deaf to all remonstrances, resolved to remain at work. They are new threatened with the loss of their Union benefits because their executive disagrees with them in politics and openly sympathizes with the Sinn Fein rebellion. It would be well if the validity of the executive's action could be tested in the law-courts.