STRIKE DEADLOCK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 60, 11 March 1944, Page 5

STRIKE DEADLOCK

Entire Welsh Coalfield Remains Idle MOVE EXPECTED TO-DAY Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, Mar. 10. The whole Welsh coalfield is still virtually at a standstill. No new move to end the deadlock is expected until to-morrow, when 250 delegates from the miners' lodges meet at Cardiff to hear their officials explain the Government's offer to remove some of the grievances, including the special allowances for working in exceptional conditions, also of the Government's tentative proposals to overhaul the wages system.

However, the miners' lodges on Sunday will say the last word about the ending of the strike when they vote on whatever recommendation, if any, is received from the delegates' conference.

The present rate of coal loss is 500,000 tons weekly, while the loss of wages by to-morrow will total £400,000. Unless there is a speedy settlement of the strike some industrial works will be seriously affected. It is stated some of these works will be able to carry on only for a short time with the present coal stocks.

RETURNING TO WORK

NEW SOUTH WALES MINERS Rec. 11.30 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. Officials of striking miners' lodges on the southern coast of New South Wales have decided to accept an instruction from the miners' central council to return to work next wesk. The general strike on these coalfields has caused a loss of about 180,000 tons of coal. The Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, in the House of Representatives, denied that the taking over of a certain mine by the Coal Commissioner, Mr. Mighell. was capitulation to the Miners' Federation. He declared the nationalisation of mines was not Government policy. Mr. Mighell has issued a warning that he expects coke and coal for domestic purposes to be in very short supply this winter.