February, 1941, 1941

A furor arose over a statement Mitchell made at the convention that "There is no basis for trade-unionism in Southern agriculture". Butler claimed that Mitchell was trying to turn a legitimate union into a crusade and threatened to resign if Mitchell did not retract his speech. On the dispute, the papers include a statement by Butler and a statement apparently written by Mitchell (9 -- note: it is not clear whether Mitchell's statement was read at the Feb. 9 or the Jan. 30 NEC meeting), the minutes of the NEC meeting which adjudicated the matter (9), and a press release which reported that Mitchell had repudiated his convention speech (10). The rift led Kester to submit his letter of resignation from the STFU (27); see also Butler's reply to Kester (March 13). The other major topic in the February correspondence is the matter of arrangements for NSW