MANIFESTO BY THE CAMBRIAN COMBINE WORKMEN

To our Fellow-workers in the Mines of South Wales
Cardiff Conference on Saturday next, May 27th 1911.

COMRADES,
We issue this Manifesto in the form of an Appeal; but it will probably be a bitter Appeal, because it issues from sore hearts.

On Saturday next, you will be expected to send a Delegate from every Lodge in the Coalfield to the Conference at Cardiff. You will further be asked to authorise your Delegate to vote at that Conference in favour of recommending the Cambrian Workmen to accept the proffered terms.

Fellow-workers, for our sakes, for your own sakes, for the sakes of all those who are dear to you, we ask you NOT TO DO THIS, and we will try to give you SOME REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT.

We confidently hope that when you have considered the matter, you will agree with us that THE TERMS OFFERED ARE WORSE THAN DEFEAT. Remember, that we have fought a hard fight against tremendous odds, and we would like to impress upon you that THE METHOD OF FIGHTING WAS NOT OF OUR SEEKING. You decided that for us, for by your ballot vote you told us that MID-RHONDDA WAS TO BE THE COCKPIT OF THE FIGHT. We accepted the position with misgivings, but manfully entered on the fight, and we think you will give us the credit for having fought well, and we are not beaten - far from it! With your assistance (and we ask you to look at the position fairly and dispassionately), we will not only win out, but win something substantial for you as well.

We have been deliberately and FOULLY MISREPRESENTED by a large section of the public Press. We have been BLUDGEONED BY THE POLICE. ONE OF OUR COMRADES LOST HIS LIFE in contending with the police. TWO COMRADES, in the stress of the struggle through illness and privation, COMMITTED SUICIDE. Many of our fellows have suffered IMPRISONMENT. Some are now in prison who have foully had their liberty sworn away, and are as innocent of any crime as any reader of this Appeal. If we could only tabulate even a part of the SUFFERING AND MISERY ENDURED BY OUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, we feel sure that you will agree with us that the fight has gone too far and the suffering too great, that we should now be handed over to the mercy of the D. A. Thomas Combine.

We ask you to say, friends, that the time has arrived when the surrender policy of our apologetic leaders must stop. They have not realised what it means to us in suffering. We know what questionable use Mr. F. L. Davis and other employers have made of the fact that Mabon and Mr. D. Watts Morgan recommended the terms rather than face the rigours of winter. But this is no excuse for the childlike way that Mabon and Mr. Tom Richards have allowed Mr. Llewelyn (th [sic.] General Manager of the Combine) for the...