THE COAL STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 7

THE COAL STRIKE.

MORE MEN RETURNING.

ACTION OF FEDERATION. LOCAL AGREEMENTS OPPOSED. [ ■,3y Cable.-Press Association.— CopvrUht.) LOXDOX, August 22. By noon to-day a further 10,000 men had =igned on to start work on Monday in Nottingham and Derbyshire. ■ , An eleventh-hour change was made by J the general secretary of the Miners' Federation, .Mr. A. J. Cook, in his plans j for the week-end. He rushed to the f Midlands to attempt to check the breakaway. \ In many villages there was great enthusiasm because of the prospect of the | , men resuming work. Continuous streams i of men are signing on in the Mansfield area. There was a queue 100 yds long at 9 a.m. at one pit. The men did not ask to see the terms of employment in black and white. They were anxious to sign on a= quickly as possible. The officials of the Miners' Federation ;irc straining every effort to prevent the signing of local agreements. : Significance is attached to the fact that the Safety Men's Union, which so j tar has refused to join in the strike, has been summoned to attend a meeting in London next week. Its membership is the strongest in South Wales, which j district has been most stubborn on the subject of a national agreement. The report published in the '"'Daily j Herald" to the effect that the president) of the Mining Association, Mr. Evan | Williams, said to the miners on Thurs- } day: "I suppose you have come to sur-, render in order to save your faces," i= j officially denied. It is stated that the only reference of the kind was that of the president r>f the Miners' Federation, Mr. Herbert Smith. j who said the miners had not come to beg to get back to work. "" i A PESSIMISTIC OUTLOOK. Labour and political circles hold! pessimistic views regarding the pro-j speets of a settlement of the coalmining' dispute. i A general drift back to work is un-! certain. Even if the miners in many j districts conclude local agreements in ' response to the fairly generous termwhich have been offered to them the process must occupy some weeks. The sole hope of an early general termination of the stoppage lies in the reassembling of Parliament on Ausrust 30. Its business then will be to confirm' the emergency regulations, but no doubt I time will be given for a general discus.- ' sion of the situation.