THE monument to the Cornish miners who took part in the great exile (The Disporia Gardens) is little more than an attempt to whitewash Cornish history and present a bland version made palatable for the incomers who will fill the 6,000-8,000 houses that the URC intend to build.
The men, and it was largely men leaving their wives and children behind, did so because of unemployment, low wages and starvation. Many returned home to die of miner's lung or tropical diseases as they worked in the dust filled stopes of the Rand or the malign effect of the Cuban mines.
They might like to consider if they want a monument to perhaps another piece of Cornish history which has, too, been whitewashed. For, in 1830 and on and off for 100 years previously, the Cornish population was subject to hunger and famine while rich merchants exported Cornish corn to England.
In 1795 a large body of miners assembled to relieve the dealers of their corn at a price the people could afford. Fifty of these heroes were rounded up and tried, some imprisoned, some transported and three ordered to be executed. At their funeral, over 1,000 people attended. Surely, these heroes who fought to feed their people must rank alongside the Tolpuddle Martyrs. We should put up a statue in their memory.
Mr Wallace Simmons, Trelowarren Street, Camborne
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