Letter

              VOLUNTARY INDUSTRIAL AID
FOR SPAIN
TELEPHONE: HOLBORN 6119
32, GREAT ORMOND STREET
LONDON, W.C.1
18th April 1937
ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
HARRY ADAMS, Chairman
(Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers)
ALFRED BARNES, M.P. 
(Chairman of the Co-operative Party)
A.C. BASSEBE
(Hydraulic Coupling Co., Ltd.)
H.G. BROTHERTON 
(Sheet Metal Workers Union)
A.W. COSTER
Electrical Trades Union)
J. DUNNAGE. A.M. Inst., T.
J. DAGGER
(Amalgamated Society of Woodcutting Machinists)
R.H. EDWARDS (National Union of Vehicle Builders)
LORD FARINGDON
BERT JOY
(Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers)
GEOFFREY PYKE, Hon. Secretary
J. REEVES (Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society)
JOE SCOTT, Treasurer
(Amalgamated Engineering Union)
J.R. SHANLEY
(Amalgamated Union of Upholsterers)
JACK TANNER
(Amalgamated Engineering Union)
Councillor D.C. WEBSTER, L.C.C. 
(National Union of Vehicle Builders)
A.M. WALL (London Trades Council)
Your Ref: WMC/FEM/MT/741.
Our Ref: GP/LJL
Sir Walter Citrine,
The Trades Union Congress General Council,
Transport House,
Smith Square,
S.W.1.
Dear Sir Walter,
Many thanks for your letter of the 14th April.
It is probably due to my inexperience of political and Trade Union matters, but, after the most careful thought, I am not clear as to what far-reaching principle is raised by my letter of the 20th March in The New Statesman and of the 7th April to Mr. Tewson.
If you would be so good as to refer to my letter of the 20th March in The New Statesman (a copy is enclosed) you will notice that there, too, I raised the question of why any aid given to Spain should be only in the form of money (which, in many cases, is expended largely on labour,), and not also, directly in the form of labour. You will note that the stress on transport is, as an example of this suggestion as the most pressing need.
My letter to the A.E.U. and theirs in reply dealt with this instance as the immediate practical need. I do not grasp what principle is raised by voluntary labour for the making of surgical instruments which is not involved in the reconditioning of motor transport. "All those necessities, the despatch of which to Spain is not prohibited" - the phrase you quote from my letter to the New Statesman on the 20th March - is rather exuberant and ambitious; but again I am puzzled as to what far-reaching principle is raised by it. Would voluntary labour in the making of, say, boots or bedsteads or bedding involve a principle not involved in the voluntary reconditioning of transport?
The A.E.U. letter you already have. The members of the Vehicle Builders and the Upholsterers sitting on this Committee are sitting as representatives of their Unions. It seemed to me that, for a wider application of the proposal which, as I see it, is merely to do what is already being done in the most economic manner, beyond motor transport, the approach to the Unions concerned would best be made through you or with your help.