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MANCHESTER EYEWITNESS
ISSUE NUMBER 18 SATURDAY, JULY 12TH, 1947


500 surface hands at the Mosley Common Colliery refused to work on Monday, throwing idle 2000 men, many of whom had already gone underground. The striking men are dissatisfied over a clause in the five-day week agreement which requires them to work 25 minutes longer every day. On the same day, miners' leader Mr Will Lawther, told delegates at the annual mineworkers conference that unofficial strikes were "a crime against the people".

A new bi-weekly air service was inaugrated on Monday when a Dakota belonging to the Irish airline, Aer Lingus, left Dublin for Amsterdam via Manchester. Together with the KLM bi-weekly service, the number of flights on this route is now four per week. Passengers on the flight included Mr Sean Lemass, Eire Minister of Industry and Commerce.

On Thursday, the Manchester Airport Committee announced that an Area Traffic Control Organisation is to be set up. This follows warnings by British European Airways Corporation that they might withdraw some north-west services unless an Area Control was set up immediately.

Eccles (Lancashire) police recaptured 24 year old Kurt Galle, a German prisoner-of-war. He was reported to have escaped from Errol R.A.F. camp, Perthshire on June 23rd. The arrest was made at a house where Galle was said to have been staying with a girl. The woman who had given them shelter said she believed they were a honeymoon couple, and had given the name of MacRae.


Platt Hall, Rusholme

The new gallery of English costume, the most complete of its kind in the country, opened on Thursday. The collection consists of a thousand dresses, 500 hats as well as the frills, furbelows, silks, satins, georgettes and bombazines of a century and a half of fashion. The gallery is housed at Platt Hall, Rusholme, Manchester.

Two men were fined at the City Magistrates Court on Monday, after making false fire calls. After having had a few drinks with a friend he was seeing off at London Road Station, James Martin Sherlock, a collier, found his car had been stolen.

He used what he thought was a police telephone box, and a few minutes later, four fire engines and 20 firemen appeared. It was an N.F.S. fire alarm pillar. He was fined £10 for giving a false alarm and cautioned for being drunk and incapable. Another man was fined a similar amount for making a similar false alarm call.

There is a widespread traffic in stolen cars all over the north of England, it was alleged in a Sheffield court on Tuesday, when a 37 year old motor-car dealer was accused of stealing and receiving 22 cars from owners in various towns and cities, including Stockport and Manchester. The accused purchased second-hand cars, stole others of the same age and type, and transferred the number plate from the bought cars to the stolen cars, which he sold.

In a telegram sent to the King and Queen on Thursday, the people of Manchester extended their congratulations on the engagement of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.

The interior of the Manchester Assize Court, destroyed in 1941, is to be reconstructed in a Denham studio for the Two Cities film "The Mark of Cain" starring Eric Porter. Much of the action takes place in Manchester, including the decisive courtoom scene. A facsimile reproduction of the old court, built in 1864, has been designed by art director Alec Vetchinsky. He came to Manchester to make a survey but found the Assizes Court to be a pile of rubble. Using a photo from 1937, he has made an exact replica, correct down the the finest detail.

A group of German visitors went to a school in Manchester on Friday and were impressed by the standard of the school meals being served there. Visiting Green End School, Burnage Lane, Levenshulme, Heinz Koester, of the German News Service, commented favourably on the food, and also said there were three things which impressed him about the British people - their discipline, their consideration for each other and their freedom.

The father of two boys who were birched recently in Stretford has demanded a public enquiry. The two boys, aged 10 and 11, were accused of breaking into a garage and stealing property and £3 cash. They both received the maximum penalty - six strokes with a birch rod - at Old Trafford Police Station. The father, who said the boys had already received adequate punishment, asked Stretford MP Mr H L Austin, to appeal to the Home Secretary. Mrs Alice Titt, senior woman magistrate, is against birching. "I do not want a return to a Dickensian England. We have enough tough guys already. I believe birching to-day makes the gangsters of to-morrow".

More rain is forecast for the rest of the weekend, but there will be higher temperatures. It will become fair with cloud breaking later. It will be warm and close.


Text and photo by Aidan O'Rourke
Based on reports in the Manchester Evening News

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