Hastings Chronicle

Local elections were to take place on Monday 26th in the four wards whose councillors had been elected as aldermen by the other councillors, following the elections at the beginning of November. The wards were Silverhill & Hollington, All Saints, St Clements and St Leonards. The best chance of a non-Tory victory was in Hollington. A meeting of the Trades and Labour Council on Saturday 10 November at the Clarence Hotel, Middle Street, decided to ask Mr Walter William Jones, of the United Operative Plumbers’ Association, to contest the Silverhill and Hollington seat. He agreed to do so, officially standing as a representative of the Trades Council, although with the support of the Liberals. At a meeting of the Liberal party for Hollington and Silverhill it was decided not to adopt a Liberal candidate but that every legitimate effort be made to secure Mr Jones’ return. It was stated that Jones had never been a socialist or a member of the Democratic party, nor could he support their policy. The Mail saw him as an admirable representative. [Was he the first-ever ‘Labour’ candidate in a Hastings election?]

The Hastings Labour Representation Committee (LRC), which by then was effectively the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) by another name, met on Monday 12th, also at the Clarence. In a motion proposed by Alf Cobb, they refused to back Jones, because of his lack of socialist beliefs and his deal with the Liberals (and personal feelings from both sides). It was clear that over the past few months a big split had developed between the Trades Council (just focusing on trade unionists) and the SDF, which had few trade unionists as members. Cobb believed the Trades Council had little more than 500 fully paid members - Jones had claimed a thousand. The Trades Council had severed itself from the LRC because of the tactics of the socialists, which were seen as detrimental to trades unionism.

Mr G Page (chairman of the Trades Council) said their dispute with the LRC was on socialistic matters generally and not because, as some seemed to think, Mr Jones entered into an arrangement with the Liberal Party at the last municipal election. Jones was a nominee of the Trades Council which was not connected with any socialistic body. The decision not to support Mr Jones by the LRC was therefore immaterial. Page said the new LRC could not be described as directly representing Labour as there were no recognised trade unionists officially connected with it. It was composed of socialists and democrats.

The Mail of 24 November was requested by Mr Jones to state that he was not in any way connected with any socialistic organisation in the borough in any shape or form. Alfred Cobb replied to some trade union views in a letter to the editor.