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Monmouthshire miners who took unofficial strike action in support of their colleagues at Tredegar. This action was in open defiance of the Executive Committee of the SWMF and the government and took place despite knowledge of the difficult military situation in France. The workmen only returned to work after the Tredegar men had won.61 After the armistice, although the lodge committee initially supported the dismissal of '1914 miners' in order to make room for returning soldiers, a mass meeting of the lodge immediately threatened to 'down tools' if any '1914 miners' were dismissed and the lodge delegate was mandated to oppose the demobilization scheme drawn up by the coalowners and the SWMF. 62 The lodge then took the lead in opposing the scheme in the Monmouthshire Western Valleys Miners' District Council. 63 As at Fforchaman, members of the Llanhilleth lodge appear slowly to have placed behind them most of the internal differences that arose over the war. The case of the lodge vice-chairman, Percy Gwilym, provides a good example. Whilst the lodge supported Gwilym in his attempt to force the local workmen's hall to provide a room for classes taught by the Central Labour College, his association with the left-wing anti-war elements in the SWMF appears to have led to his removal from the lodge committee that was responsible for managing the selection of men for military service. In March 1919, however, a mass meeting passed his resolution calling on the government to release all conscientious objectors, although there was a strong feeling against the local miners' district actually granting money to any conscientious objector. Later the same year Gwilym was temporarily removed from the Peace Celebrations Committee because of his own critical views of the war. He was subsequently restored to the committee after the local ex-servicemen's organization sent a letter to the lodge apologizing for their criticisms of him and asking the lodge to reinstate him. These difficulties over Gwilym's dissenting attitude towards the recent war did not, however, prevent him from being elected as lodge chairman to replace S. Pask in December 1919. Pask was removed as chairman because he was judged 61 Llanhilleth Steam Coal Lodge minutes, 29 May 1918. For a fuller description of the Tredegar strike, see S. Demont, 'Tredegar and Aneurin Bevan: a society and its political articulation, 1890-1929' (unpublished University of Wales Ph.D. thesis, 1990), pp. 197-213. 62 Llanhilleth Steam Coal Lodge minutes, 2, 7 January 1919. 63 Western Mail, 13 January 1919.