....SECOND TIME TO FOOL THEM SO PALPABLY. It is reported that Mr. Llewelyn seemed to be the happiest man of the group on the evening of May 15th, when the proposed Settlement was arrived at. This might well be so. Under this agreement he will get his full pound of flesh; but we, after all our suffering, get ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY.

We, at some of the Cambrian Pits, know something of the working of these precious Boards. At Clydach Vale in 1901, after a five and a half months' Strike, a Conciliation Board was formed for the Cambrian alone, with the late Judge Owen as Independent Chairman. The working of that Board was the worst thing the Clydach Vale men ever knew. Under it the WORKING CONDITIONS WERE WHITTLED DOWN WITH A VENGEANCE. Mabon and Mr. Tom Richards knew all about this, yet seemed to have conveniently forgotten the matter in the present negotiations. It was this Board that made the reputation of Mr. Leonard W. Llewelyn, and laid the foundation of the present Combine. From 1901 to March, 1905, the conditions of these men became SO EVIL and the men SO DISORGANISED, that the pits were NOT EXAMINED BY THE WORKMEN in their own interests for some 18 months prior to the explosion that occurred in the No. 1 Pit in March, 1905. We have a bitter experience of these tying-up Boards.

The terms now offered have been twice rejected; once through a ballot, now they are again offered with A MOST OBJECTIONABLE ADDITION to them.

We ask you, fellow-workmen, to note that the Executive Council are evenly divided on the question of recommending these terms. 11 voted for the terms; 7 against: and 4 LEFT THE ROOM rather than take part in the recommendation.

When the Executive decided to confine the fight to the Combine area, Mr. D. A. Thomas said that this put him and his company on velvet. In these negotiations Mr. Llewelyn has undoubtedly had our leaders on toast. The employers (represented by four of the keenest men in the country, in the persons of Messrs. Davis, Griffiths, Heppel, and Dalziel) felt it incumbent upon them to call in for consultation Messrs. Callaghan, Pullin, and Llewelyn. But our benighted Representatives thought they were more than a match for the seven, hence the present debacle.

We ask you, fellow-workmen, to examine the present terms offered. You will find there is absolutely no bottom to these SPOOF ASSURANCES. See Clause 3 of Agreement, and you will find that the Independent Chairman HAS ABSOLUTELY NO TANGIBLE BASIS to work upon. Mr. F. L. Davis is very anxious that nothing shall enter into the Cambrian Settlement that will imperil the Conciliation Board. Small wonder!....