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Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

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10 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

" Be True to Winstone." I…

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Be True to Winstone." MR. J. H. THOMAS' MESSAGE TO THE WORKERS. A STRONG UNFETTERED LABOUR "A STRONC AND UNFETTERED LABOUR PARTY." Treliarris Boys' School was filled to overflow on Saturday night when Mr. J. H. Thomas, M. P.. visited the constituency in support of the candidature of Mr. Winstone, a large crowd of people failing to obtain admittance. In spite of misrepresentation and abuse," Mr. Thomas told his audience, Mr. Winstone has stood loyal and faithful to his class, and whenever the interests of the workers are in- volved Winstone never forgets his obligation and duty towards them. (Applause.) If Winstone is entitled to your confidence as a leader, as act- ing president of the South Wales Miners' Feder- ation. he is at least entitled to your preference in his return to Parliament. (Applause.) Win- stone has been true to you. Be true to Win- stone and do your duty." (Cheers.) 1 DIVINE RIGHT OF WORKERS. Mr. Thomas said that the right to Labour re- presentation was to him a divine right. Brains were hot the gift of any particular class or creed, hut shared hy all the race from the hum- blest to the highest, to he utilised for the benefit not of a section but of the community. And it was because he believed in that divine right that he askc(L the workers to be true to themselves and their principles. There never was in the history of this country a time so difficult and so dangerous as the times ahead. Any public man knowing anything of the situation must tremble at the responsibility to be taken, and in these troublesome and dangerous times personal and sectional interests must be subordinated in order that the country might be saved. Men and women had given unstintingly of their blood and the country of its treasure, and to these people the nation owed a huge debt. Fully 800,000 of the bravest and best lives had been, sacrificed in the war, and our casualties were in the region of four to four and a quarter mil- lions. Eevery widow, orphan and mother must be a nationa l charge. No money would recom- pense them fully for their loss. MONUMENT OF PEACE. Th. lasting tribute to the gallant men who had made the great sacrifice should be not A monument of stone or gold, but the monument of permanent peace. That could only be done by dealing with the root causes of war. When we read with feelings of emotion of Antwerp falling, how many of us know that the guns de- fending Antwerp were not capable of meeting the guns attacking it? And that Krnpps made the guns used against Antwerp and the Krupps made the guns defending it/1 When we read with horror of the gallant sacrifices of our mer- chant-seamen of the torpedoing of ships, how many knew that thousands of these Seamen wére hurled to eternity by what is known as the Whitehead torpedo, an English patent financed bv English Capitalists and prepared for sale to the highest bidder? The Labour party was standing for no private trading in armaments., That was what neither of the other two political parties had yet declared. The Labour Party was definitely committed that whenever peace was made and whatever Government was returned it shall never again he within the power of any Government or statesmen to commit a nation to war at the back of the representatives of the people. It war there must be, it must be the chosen representatives of the people who would make it and no secret treaties were to exist in future. A LESSON ON EXPLOITATION. Whenever peace was made we, the common people, must be round the table as plenipoten- tiaries with the same powers and authority as everyone else. it was said that that set up a sectional or class claim, but his answers to that charge w ere: the Prime Minister had accepted the principle; that unless that were done we would be the only people not represented, be- cause every class but the working-class would be represented. We were told that one of the re- sults of the war must be the stopping of dump- ing sweated goods in this country, and he gen- erally agreed the only point, of disagreement was the method. The Coalition tariff-reform method was to put on a tax to enable the Eng- lish manufacturer to fleece the consumer. An illustration of this was prodded during the war when the perfect system had been in operation. There had been no foreign competition, no for- eign goods, and it had been seen how automa- tically prices had gone up while simultaneously the dividends of the various capitalist concerns had also gone up. We wanted this peace to in- clude not merely the old formalities of diplomacy settled by statesmen and territorial adjustment, but recognition of human beings, and in the treaty a guarantee of a universal eight-hours' day, and a minimum wage, and then we would stop the foreign manufacturer sweating his peo- ple and stop the "English manufacturer from ex- ploiting us at the expense of other sweated people. NO REDUCTION IN PRICES. Those individuals who told us there is likely to be a reduction in the cost of living shortly knew nothing of the situation. As Chairman of the Government's Reconstruction Committee he stated definitely there was no hope of an imme- diate reduction. There was a world shortage of materials and foodstuffs, and in addition we had to proceed at once to feed the Germans. It was silly to talk clap-trap about boycotting the Ger- mans and starving them. The Allies bought food-stuffs upon an international basis, and in consequence, if they did not feed Germany, the Central Powers could enter the world's market as competitors offering bigger prices than the Allies, and the real effoct would be the auto- matic rise in prices and in the cost of living. LABOUR AND NATIONAL DEBT. I The Labour Party did not subscri be to a policy of the repudiation of th<? iiati(t] debt. That would be neither honourable nor business- like, but would be fatal to the best interests of the- country.. The debt had to be paid. We (Continued at foot of next column).

I .To You Mr. Liberal.

The Historic Rink.

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I " Distress Signals."

I The Electric Theatre cll.

Labour at The Peace Table.

I iTheatre Royal

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" Be True to Winstone." I…