Pioneer

I A Pleasant Little Function. I MERTHYR SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASSES HONOUR TEACHERS. THE WORK FOR THE SUMMER OUTLINED. There was a pleasant little gathering in Bent- ley's on .Friday night last, when the I.L.P. Social Science Classes closed their winter session by presenting the two teachers, Mr. Mark Starr (Industrial History) and Mr. E. J. Williams (Economics) with a pocket book each. It is sig- nificant of the new spirit of study and enquiry that the classes have called into being in the minds of the faithful few who have persisted in their attendance that they preferred that the evening should be closed by a lecture on the Materialistic Conception of History, to a social evening, though the latter are more generally I regarded as giving the festive atmosphere cor- rect for presentation. Ted" Williams did not know what we wanted when he turned up, but the surety of his grasp of his economics is such that he readily fell in with the suggestion when it was made to him, and for well over an hour we were regaled with a scholarly speech that, more than anything, brought home to us a sense of our loss in mid-session, when his appointment as check weigher at Mardy, in succession to his Plebian colleague, Mr. Noah Ablett, made it necessary for him to reluctantly sever his teach- ing connection with the Economics Class which, up to that time, he had so skilfully steered through the shoals and quicksands of theories of value, and methods of exchange. Mark Starr, who has endeared himself to a large circle of I.L.P. friends in Merthyr this winter, came in hurriedly and late from his Dowlais class-room, and his remarks were con- fined to a return of thanks, in which he managed to intersperse some really good advice respecting the best methods of carrying on during the sum- mer months. The presentation was made on behalf of the class by the Chairman, the Editor of the "Pioneer," whose remarks were improved upon by Mr. John Barr, whose tribute to the ability and personality of the two young C.L.C. men was a particularly fine one. Mr. John Adkins, ehairman of the I.L.P., also spoke in high eulo- gistic terms of the classes, as did Mr. W. J. Davies (Secretary, I.L.P.). SUMMER ACTIVITIES. The classes had a general meeting on Sunday! morning to consider ways and means of continu-1 ing their studies and preparing for a big acces- sion to the ranks of the students next session. A proposal to found a nature study circle with organised rambles among the flora of the neigh- oourhood was first considered, and Mr. Dai Jones, who had promised to act as guide and mentor, explained the value and charm of na- ture study rambles so well that it was decided to institute these as from the Sunday following Easter Sunday—on Sunday week, therefore the intending ramblers will meet at the I.L.P. at 9.30, and will then proceed to botanise the dis- trict between Merthyr and Mountain Ash, where they will finally arrive and participate in the de- monstration at which J. R. Macdonald will be the principal speaker. Anyone who is attracted by the opportunity to get a real grasp on the flora of the neighbourhood is cordially invited to join in. It was then decided to carry on the purely economic studies in a study circle to be held on Friday nights, beginning on April 5th, and here again would-be students will be welcomed. An- other important decision come to was to run monthly public meetings on Sunday evenings, for the purpose of educidating the Marxian cri- ticism to I.L.P. members and tbQ outside public who have not so far made a study of the author of Das Capital and his school. By this means it is hoped to encourage an interest in the classes and obtain huge classes when the work is again taken in hand systematically under teachers in the fall.

Labour Day, May 1 st, 1918 MERTHYR TRADES UNIONIST DEMONSTRATION. Great Attractions at Cyfarthfa Park and Olympia Rink. BRASS BAND CONTESTS AND MARCHING COMPETITION. CHILDREN'S SPORTS. FOR PROGRAMME APPLY TO W. J. DAVIES, 2 Pembroke Place, Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil. GREAT EISTEDDFOD AT THE RINK, for full particulars apply LEWIS MILLS, 8 Stuart Street, Merthyr Tydfil. The following will speak at the Park- ROBERT SMILLIE, DR. MARION PHILLIPS, AND REV. J. M. JONES. ALL THE ABOVE ATTRACTIONS FOR 1

Official Veracity BY LEONARD WOOLF. I There is a passage in the Life of Sir Charles Dilke which shows that in the 'eighties Ministers considered it a matter of some concern if they made a statement which, even inadvertently, misled the House of Commons. Sir Charles re- gretted Mr. Gladstone's impetuous habit of an- swering supplementary questions because it led him not infrequently into inaccuracies. It does not need much acquaintance with the Blue Books and Hansard of to-day to teach a man that this scrupulousness has completely vanished from the Front Bench; but few people realise, we believe, how low the standard of official veracity has fallen. We propose to test this standard by reference to a particular series of events which have been obscured by the greater issues of the war, but which are of the greatest importance to the principles and honour of Bri- tish administration. THE FACTS. I At the end of May, 1915 riots of a "very serious nature occurred in Ceylon. Over a wide area the Sinhalese, who are Buddhists, made at- tacks upon the Moors, who are Mohammedan. Twenty-five Moors were killed and 180 injured, and much damage was done to property. Mar- tial Law was proclaimed, and maintained, al- though the riots did not last more, than a week, until August. During that time the population was subjected to very severe military law; 412 persons were tried by military courts-martial, 358 of whom were convicted. Eighty-three per- sons were sentenced to death by these courts, and over 50 to penal servitude for life. MORE FACTS. I These are the bare facts. Now very soon the Sinhalese were making charges and complaints that grave injustice and irregularities had been and were being committed by officers invested with power under martial law. These charges were contained in a memorandum by a Sinhalese gentleman, Mr. Perara, who came to England to represent the Sinhalese Caae, and in memorials a<idre?ed to the Colomal %e c? by a large num- ber of prominent Sinhalese in Ceylon. The most serious of these charges was that a con- sidecrabl-o number of Sinhalese had been shot or flogged without trial by military officers after the rioting had ceased. Full details of these al- leged cases were given and were supported by affidavits. One might have naturally expected that the Colonial Office would have immediately investigated the fa<<t« and would have given a frank account of their investigations when ques- tioned in tho House of Commons. The follow- ing. facts will, however, show that such is not the standard of veracity adopted by our Colonial Office and the Government of our Crown Colonies. ITHE REPLY. I The Sinhalese Memorial contained among other similar cases, sworn affidavits alleging that on Juno 10th, 1915, several days after rioting had ceased, at a village called Algoda, a European officer accompanied by Punjabi soldiers had ar- rested and shot without trial three men, Appu, Podi Sinno, and James Bass. The Memorial was addivssod to the Secretary of State in Decem- ber, 1915. Six months later, in May, 1916, Mr. Bonar Law was asked what steps had been taken to bring those concerned in this incident to jus- tice. Mr. Bonar Law's reply was: "I have no reason to believe that there is any truth in this story." Four months after this reply of the Secretary of State, the Governor of Ceylon, owing to persistent agitatioin, appointed a Gov- ernment Commission to inquire into ten of these alleged cases of shootings without trial, and the Algoda case was among those. The Commission made its report in January, 1917, but the Colonial Office has refused to publish it in this country. The report made and the evidence taken by the Commission prove that every state- ment made in the Sinhalese Memorial with re- gard to these three men was true. The three men were arrested by a Mr. Sudlow, an officer of patrol, on June 10th, several days after riot- ing had ceased, and were executed by him on the same day without a legal trial. The Gover- nor of Ceylon in a despatch to the Secretary of St ate dealing with the report of the Commission describes Mr. Sudlow's acts as lynch law and a campaign of illegality." This despatch and the report were in the hands of the Secretary of State in July, 1917. Of the ten cases of shoot- ing investigated by the Commission, nine had been given in detail in the Sinhaleses Memorial. Questions were repeatedly asked in Parliament by M.P.'s with regard to these oases in 1916 and 1917, and the Secretary of State always replied in one of the following formulae: "I have no reason to suppose that there is any truth in this, allegation," or "I have read what purports to be a transcript of the deposition in question, but there is no ground for supposing that it re- presents the facts." The phrasing of these offi- cial statements is remarkable. Given in reply to questions with regard to such serious alle- gations as a number of illegal shootings, they implied that the Colonial Office had satisfied it- self by proper enquiry that there was no truth in the stories. I NO SUCH ENQUIRY. I We now know that no such en- quiry was ever made by the Colonial Secretary, because as soon as an enquiry was held, every material detail in the stories as given in the Memorial was proved to be correct by the state- ments of the officers who had executed the men. 'In every one of the ten cases investigated, the evidence and the report show that the victims were shot several days after rioting had ceased without any legal trial. Now look at the sequel. On November 27th, 1917, Mr. Long was asked whether in view of the fact that only nine out of the 22 cases alleged in the Memorial had been investigated and that in all these nine cases it was found that the statements were correct and the denials made in the House were unfounded and inaccurate, he would cause a similar inves- tigation to be held into the other 13 cases. Mr. Long replied that the Commission found that in all these cases the shooting was illegal, though done in good faith for the maintenance of order, but the statements made in the memorial were shown to be inaccurate in important particulars. The obvious exaggeration of the statements con- tributed in no small degree to the disbelief with which they were received." The standard of offi- cial veracity sinks evien lower than before in this answer. A comparison of the report of the Commission and of the statements in the Memo- rial shows that in not a single important par- ticular were the latter inaccurate. The allega- tions in the Memorial were not exaggerated. they were actually understated. This is proved by the Governor's despatch to Mr. Long. This is what the Memorial said: Days after the disturbances were over men were shot in cold blood without any form of trial or enquiry, al- though even during the riots the sitting of a single Court of Justice was not interfered with or interrupted. Several instances of such shoot- ing are given below, in none of which were the men taken up while committing or participating in any acts of lawlessness." This is what Sir John Anderson, the Governor of Ceylon, now says in his despatch: The primary responsi- bility for these deplorable incidents rests on Mr. F. N. Sudlow who was selected by the military authorities to command a small body of military he seems to have construed (these instructions) into a commission to admin- ister lynch law Mr. Sudlow started the campaign of illegality by the shooting at Ampe of Romanls Perera." And of another officer responsible for shooting a man without trial, a. man against whom no charge of compli- city in the riots had even been alleged, the Governor writes that his conduct deserves the loathing and disgust of every decent English- man." NOT IN THE EVIDENCE. I Anyone who takes the trouble to undertake a laborious study of the deeuments, will soon be painfully convinced that practically every offi- cial statement made about them has been either untrue, evasive, or disingenuous. For instance, in the Sinlialeae Memorial it was stated that two men, Simon Perera and Geeris, were arrested on June 5th in Simon's house and immediately shot in his compound in the presenco of his wife and child. On June 5th, 1917, Mr. Long in answer to a question stated that tlieisk- two men were shot wliilfc escaping armed from a house used as a meeting-pla-ce for rioters." Now it happens that the police-officer responsible for this execution gave evidence before a Police Enquiry Commissioin in 1916, and he himself stated what he did. The Report of the Commis- ?.sion was m.de in D16 and was in the hands of the Colonial Office when Mr. Long gave his answer. This is the Police Officer's account: He was told that Simon and Geeris were bringing a gang of rioters and that an old Moorman had been shot; he went straight to Simon's house in the house he arrested a number of men. I placed tho men in a line," he proceeds, "and asked three or four respectible men like Abbas Lebbo "note that this witness, the only one mentioned, is a Moorman—" to identify them. They picked out Simon and Geeris as the men who had shot the old man, had led the crowd, and had dynamited the place. I then caused Simon and Geeris to be shot." These two men may have been guilty, of course, but they were shot an stated in the Sinhalese Memorial, and not "while escaping armed from a house used as a meeting place for rioters," as stated by the Colonial Office and Mr. Long. A MORE SUBTLE EXAMPLE. I Here is another and more subtle example. The action of the Administration has been persist- ently directed to prevent any enquiry into the events connected with the suppression of the riots. At last pressure causes the Government to enquire into nine out of 22 alleged rases of illegal action leading to the shooting of men. In all those nine cases the allegations prove to be coirect. The Colonial Office is then asked whether it will now cause investigation into the remaining 13 eases. This is Mr. Long's answer: All the cases of illegal shooting alleged in the Sinhalese1 memorial have been carefully investi- gated by Sir John Anderson, and of them ten were considered to require further inquiry by a local Commission. In the cases not referred to the (Commission, full official reports traversing the allegations had been accepted as satisfactory by my predecessor, and I see no reason for re- opening the matter.?' Now observe first that full official reports traversing the allegations had also been awepted by Mr. Long's predeces- sor in the ten cases since enquired into, and the enquiry has proved that the official reports were untrue. Secondly, Mr. Long implies that all the cases have been investigated by the Governnor. Sir John Anderson. Information from Ceylon, however, goes to show that in none of the cases in which an enquiry was asked for has the Governor made any investigation at all into the evidence of eve-witnesses or of the persons making the allegations. In other words the official investigation has consisted only of re- ports from the officials implicated traversing the allegations." And so we arc asked to believe that in the nine cases in which the allegations against the Administration have proved correct, the Administration has published the most damning evidence, but in the 13 cases in which the allegations against the Administration have proved to be false, the Administration refuse to publish the result of an enquiry which could only redound to its credit. So high is the standard of official vera city SET AN EXAMPLE. The. instances given above show that in their relations with the people of Ceylon neither the Oeylon Government nor the Home Government have acted with truth and frankness. Yet no- where are truth and frarfkness more necessary thaji in the relations between the British Ad- ministration and the people of Eastern depen- dencies. One of the commonest complaints among Englishmen in Asia is that Asiatics have no standard of veracity. Rome years ago the late Sir Alexander Ashmore, when Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, caused intense irritation among the Singhalese by publicly commenting npon their untruthfulness. But if British ad- ministration expect the Sinhalese to learn to tell the truth, they must begin by setting an ex- ample themselves.

I Merthyr Municipal Employees. DISSATISFACTION WITH WAGES AWARD. FLAT-RATE ADVANCE OF Sl DEMANDED. The Labour mem bers of the Corporation were emphaitic in a protest at Tuesday's meeting of the Merthyr Town Council against certain of the evidence presented to the Committee aD Produc- tion during the arbitration proceedings in re- spect to the wages claim of the municipal em- ployees, which they described as not being re- presentative of the views of the body of the members, and they insisted that before the Cor- poration case was presented to the Industrial Commissionesr it should have been submitted to a meeting of the Council for consideration. By the terms of the award able-bodied work- men were granted an advance of £1 a week above pre-war wages, as from the first full-pay after .February 26th, and the position of the non-able-bodied employees was left to the dis- cretion of the Corporation having regard to the increases to the able-bodied men. Women em- ployed full-time were given 2/- per week ad- vance retrospective to the fiitst full-pay in January, no award being made to part-timers. MEN'S DEMAND. At the outset of the meeting a communica- tion from the workmen was read demanding that the tl advance should be regarded as a flat-rate to non-able-bodied and able-bodied men and intimating that no other interpretation of the award would be accepted, whilst all women, it was claimed, must lie paid 12/- per week above, the pre-war standard. A statement alleged by the workmen's asso- ciation to have been made by the Corporation's representatives at the arbitration proceedings, that women-cleaners only worked half-an-hour morning and evening, was denied by Mr. W. T. G. Marsh, who stated the allegation was wholly untrue. Mr. Wm. Lewis (Penydarren) contended it was true that some of these women worked merely an hour a day, and instanced a specific case in sup- port of his statement. IMPOSSIBLE. Mr. H. M. Lloyd was of the opinion that to deviate, as suggested by the workmen, from the termJ" of the award, atrivied at on a perfectly fair basis was impossible and, with reference to the retrospective aspect of the findings, Mr. Marsh added that in the terms of reference it was clearly announced that the Corporation were agreeable to the increase da-ting back to Decem- ber 29th last—a point upon which the workmen were also insisting. Mr. Gomer Thomas: If the date was fixed at December 29th it should be stuck to what the award says. For the remainder we should ad- here to the arbitration. PREJUDICED EVIDENCE ALLEGED. Mr. L. M. Francis said he did not consider the arbitrators had dealt with the municipal em- ployees as they should have because perhaps the information was not put before them with the impartiality desirable. He then quoted a state- ment attributed to Mr. D. W. Jones, to the effect that it had been the practice of the Cor- poration to employ workmen, no longer able to continue on account of age, in the local coal, iron and steel industries. It was not fair, con- tended Mr. Francis, to give such evidence when some of the old employees of the Corporation had been in the service of the Municipality for a qiiu?rter <-t f a oentiir- a quarter of a century. A colliery worker when lie attained the age of 60 or more was not given less money if he could do the work allocated him. Touching upon the question of women-cleaners he stated that one, a school-cleaner, after pay- ing for assistance, found her neott wages for a month to be only £358. 4d. for 46 hours a week. Those women could hardly be described as over- paid, and the marvel to him was how they managed to eke out their existence at all at such a sorry pittance. Harking back to the arbitra- tion evidence Mr. Francis read a statement made by Mr. Marsh, that he had gone around the Corporation men, and they certainly did not do a day's work like the men in the collieries. H Mr. Marsh: It is absolutely true. CORPORATION NOT CONSULTED. Mr. Francis: That is not true. Better la- bourers' than those in Dowlais never worked. Road-making was skilled employment, and if the men could do the work required of them by the borough engineer, they should be paid a de- cent wage for it. The Corporation was not con- sulted a.s to the evidence, and it was because he thought that evidence prejudiced he believed the arbitrators came to the decisions contained in the award. If a better relation between Capital and Labour was desired after the war,' a lead should be given now. The cost of living had gone up 100 per cent. during the war and so the men were still on the bad side." If these arbitrators," he concluded, were to come down to clean some of our dirty schools, they would be more in sympathy with these women." Mr. N. F. Hankey (Mayor) interposed that the position of the school-cleaners was for the consideration of the Education Authority. Ald. W. Lewis (Treharris) protested that Mr. Francis had taken up an attitude which depre- cated everything that had been done. Though it might be a way of making himself popular with a section of people it was unfair, as it set the Corporation in such a position that they could not do their duty to the ratepayers. I" CORPORATION HONOUR BOUND." Mr. Dd. Perkins asked on what evidence the date of the increases granted had been altered from December 29th by the arbitrators. Mr. T. A. ltees (Clerk): That was their own idea. We agreed to it being retrospective from that date and they in their wisdom changed it. Aid. Chas Griffiths We did not ask the arbi- trator to deal with the date. I think we are in honour bound to the December date. Ma-. Marsh: We did put this before the arbi- trators. but the lirst application of the men was a week. Afterwards they asked for 91, and no doubt that was what the arbitrator had in mind in dating the award back to .Februaiy. Mr. Gomer Thomas It was 16/- more or less. The Mayor: The terms of reference were absolutely open. Eventually Mr. Lloyd moved the acceptance of the award, and Mr. Marsh seconded. Mr. L. M. Francis moved an amendment that the advances should be retrospective to Decem- ber 29th. Mr. Gomer Thomas seconded. On division the amendment was lost, twelve (including the Labour section) voting in favour and thirteen against. It was agreed that the situation with regard to increases to non-able-oodied workmen should be considered by a special meeting of the General Purposes Committee.

I MINERS AND HOSPITAL. Dowlais miners at a mass meeting on Thurs- day agreed to accept the representation conces- sions offered by the Executive Board of the Merthyr General Hospital, and to oontribute to- wards the maintenance of the institution, in re- turn, 4/- yearly per man, and 2/- each in the case of youths under 18 years of age.