THE COAL CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 183, 5 August 1925, Page 7

THE COAL CRISIS.

SUBSIDISING THE TRADE.

MR. MACDONALD'S CRITICISM.

ACUTE GERMAN COMMENT.

(By Cable.-Press Association.—Copyright.)

LONDON, August 4,

It is authoritatively .stated that the collieries which were already closed when the coalmining crisis was settled will be included in the Government subsidy scheme if the owners decide to reopen them.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Winston Churchill, has prepared the details of the scheme.

The personnel of the Royal Commission which is to be set up has not yet been decided, but the Labour representatives have already notified the Government that they will object to the chairmanship of either Sir Eric or Sir Auckland Geddes.

The question has been raised whether the Treasury is going to control the price of coal in order to minimise the losses in connection with the subsidy, and to ensure that the State's aid will not be abused. It is expected that Parliament will vote a round sum, say, £10,000,000, on the understanding that a supplementary estimate will be brought down if more should be required.

Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, Leader of the Labour party, speaking at Dunmow, said: "At the eleventh hour the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, informed the miners that the Government would give no subsidy, and that their wages must come down. If the Government had fought its policy out, one would have respected them. Instead of that it doubled up.

"The reason for this was, not that it changed its mind, but that it saw a unity outside which it was afraid to face. This was the unusual unity in the trades union movement. There is a still greater unity of public opinion behind the men. The Government came to a sound conclusion, but by an abominably bad way."

A message from Berlin says the "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung," which represents the interests of the mineowners, comments bitterly on Mr. Baldwin's statement in connection xr]ja the coal disputes. It says: "Mr. Baldwin thought a few gentle speeches on t!ie ■union of capital and labour would solve the problem. Then, on the eve of the explosion, he had recourse to a method, the consequences of which are incalculable. He Succumbed to cold-blooded extortion."

The newepaner goes on to ask if Mr. Baldwin is willing to subsidise all the British industries and transform them into recipients of State penftoins. It says the crisis is really an international one, owing to the fact that one-third of the coal produced in the world cannot be used. This fact must be grasped, says the paper, before a real solution can l>e found.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)