'When the Miners' Lodge received a copy of this letter, which was sent to Mr Frampton, 1 submitted it to a well-known and respected trade union Labour Party leader in this county whose opinion confirmed mine that the first duty of the County Area Party was to put their constitution in order and, after that had been done, to select a candidate.'

RESOLUTION AT CONFERENCE

­Thornley Lodge submitted a resolution to the County Area party at the conference at which Mr Martin was selected, asking that the selection of a candidate for the County Council election in March next be deferred until the constitution was put in order in accordance with the desires of the Labour Party Headquarters. The County Council Area Party refused to accept this resolution and proceeded with the appointment of a candidate. I withdrew my name because they had refused to carry out the recommendations of the National Labour Party and Mr Martin was selected. So far as we know, the Area Party has not acted upon the advice of National Headquarters and that is the first essential step towards reconciliation between them and the Lodge.

'If the Thornley Lodge resolution had been carried, it would have meant that the anomaly of four small sections paying eight shillings affiliation and having four votes and a Miners' Lodge paying £10 and having three votes would have been removed. But this, of course, would have defeated the object of the creation of these small sections, which was that the tail should wag the dog, although they only paid their affiliation fee on the day that the nominations were received.

REPLY TO MR PEART

'I have no desire to enter into a mud-slinging contest with the Chairman of the Area Party. Mr Peart is reported as having stated at the Thornley meeting on Tuesday that one of the curses of present-day politics was that ambitious people were anxious to hold as many positions as possible and that it was imperative that work on local government bodies should be shared out so that no single individual should have so many irons in the fire that it was impossible to give full attention to the needs of the various jobs.

'Well, Mr Peart is secretary of Seaham Division Labour Party, chairman of Thornley Local Labour Party, chairman of the County Council Area Labour Party, a member of the County Federation of Labour Parties, chairman of the governors of Wellfield School, whose meetings are held during school hours, and a member of Easington District Education Sub-Committee and this year he attended a teachers conference in Wales.

'All my work is trade union work, and the trade unions select their representatives from the district councils and the parish councils and I am honoured by the county to serve on the Executive Committee of the Durham Miners' Association and the Durham County Mining Federation Board.

THE DMA BALLOT

'It might be permissible in the political world when one's political opponent is an influential member of the opposing party and a professional politician to resort to mudslinging and abuse--a principle with which I do not agree. But when this is done by prominent members of the Labour Party to another member of the Labour Party who is an ordinary miner, who has the confidence of hIs fellow men in the trade world, then it is beneath contempt.

'I can only say that I will continue to defend the miners interests even though I have the opposition of professional classes in the Labour Party. I am firmly convinced that all this trouble has been created to influence the position and the ballot for the Treasureship of the Durham Miners' Association, for which I am a candidate.'

A November 1933 newspaper item on the DMA election for Treasurer, in which Hubert Tunney was a candidate can be see here.

NEXT: My analysis of this article.

HUBERT TUNNEY, 1890-1970 INDEX PAGE