WINSTON AND THE WORKERS
SIR,—In the course of his article, 'Winston and the Workers,' Sir Alan Herbert attempts to correct the 'satirists' in connection with the role of Churchill in the Cambrian Combine strike of 1910-11. He
suggests that more research on their part would have shown that no troops were sent to Tonypandy, only the Metropolitan Police.
If Sir Alan had himself done a little more home- work, in the area where the struggle took place and not merely in the columns of Hansard, he would have learned that the troops followed the Metro- politan Police very quickly, that all Churchill did was to delay the movement of troops for a few days and that they (the troops) were stationed in the strike area for nearly the whole of the ten months. It is true that the miner who died was not shot but died in a police battle before the troops arrived—which battle on November 7, 1910, resulted in 500 injured strikers.
These details, together with the character, numbers and distribution of troops, will be found in a book published in 1911, Labour Strife in the South Wales Coalfield, 1910-1911, written by David Evans to justify the role of the mineowners in the struggle. If it were needed, this documentary proof could be supplemented by ocular evidence, for I, as one of the strikers, saw the soldiers for the greater part of the period of the struggle.
GEORGE PIIIPPEN
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