The following item has been extracted from the front page article of the January issue of Humberside Voice: T is the view of almost all recent visitors to South Africa that no peaceful settlement of this mounting conflict is now possible. Harold Wilson pledged, in 1963, that “we shall undertake to bring employment to the areas affected—not ° excluding government orders for the ~ equipment needed all over Africa for the war against hunger and poverty.” He gave an assurance that any contracts lost would be replaced by others. And he gave a warning, that Labour’s opponents would “go to the constituencies where the manufacture of arms for South Africa is carried on and drop dark hints that Labour’s policy would mean unemployment.” SCAREMONGERING . He was right. THE HULL MAIL has played politics with the natural fears and anxieties of the Brough workers who at present have to earn a living, by carrying on this “inhuman traffic.’ Again and again it has re-
turned to the scare, ending on November 16th, 1964, with these words: “Workers at Brough have far more cause than the average citizen to await with anxiety the decision by the British Government on the question of trade with South Africa. If a ban is placed on the export of Buccaneer aircraft to that country, their jobs will be seriously imperilled.” If the MAIL had really cared, it could have banner headlined the Labour Party’s pledges of “NO UNEM- PLOYMENT” again and _ again. When the news was given that the existing contract for 16 Buccaneers would be “honoured” the MAIL — and we regret, Hull M.P.s—expressed “relief.” This implied that there had been a threat to Brough jobs. Walt Joester, however, AEU district secretary in Hull, responded “we have always been confident that the government would honour its pledges that work would be maintained whatever the decision had been.” Even without the pledges, if the contract had been cancelled, there would have been no serious unemployment prob-
lem. Natural turnover would have
taken care of the drop in labour de-
mand, and building Buccaneers for
the Navy will keep Brough busy until
at least the end of the decade.