The Potters Herald

Crucial Problems Face Convention Of British Labor

Big Issue Is Whether Coalition With Churchill Government Should Be Continued

Blackpool, England—Facing some of the most crucial problems in years, the 68th annual convention of the British Trades Union Congress got under way here this week.

The Congress controls the British Labor Party, and one of the hottest issues confronting the 725 delegates is: Shall the party continue in a coalition government with Prime Minister Churchill's Conservatives, or resume its former independent position?

Labor leaders close to Churchill, many of whom are in the cabinet, want the coalition to continue. Rank and file members, on the other hand, seem to prefer a break in the tie-up.

As in the United States, labor is much concerned with the problem of post-war jobs. Many of the delegates can remember what happened after the last war, with the terrible days of the dole. They don't want that to happen again.

How can such a predicament be prevented? Some delegates contend the answer is to cooperate with the Churchill government; others that the Labor Party should strike out with its own program.

At this writing, the convention has not come to a decision.

Opening sessions were lively, however, Ebenezer Edwards, president of the Congress, lashed out at proposals to wreak vengeance on the entire German people after the war. He conceded all Nazi "war criminals" must be punished, but insisted the people should have help in rebuilding democracy.

This can best be done by reconstructing free, democratic trade unions in Germany, and he called upon labor in all Allied countries to aid the German worker in that task after the war.

Red-headed Ellen Wilkinson, veteran trade unionist, member of Parliament and chairman of the Labor Party's executive committee, created a flurry on the second day when she called for nomination of more young people as Labor Party candidates.

Too many middle-age union officials, lacking glamor, have been put up as nominees, she said. If the Labor Party is to make headway, it must "get younger candidates" and make a real appeal "to the vast middle-of-the-road electorate," other than the working class, she insisted.

The second day's session was also marked by a spirited clash over whether to condemn a government decree which carries penalties for inciting strikes in war plants.