THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 71, 23 March 1912, Page 6

THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

The British, coal strike has now entered, its fourth week, anii tho outlook ia gloomier than ever. It is quite likely that it may add a change of Government to the other embarrassments of the position. Tho Unionists have taken the bold step of moving the rejection of the Bill which was expected to provide at least a temporary suspension of hostilities but has grievously disappointed expectations. The attack was entrusted to Mr. Balfour, whose first important speech since his retirement from the leadership of the Opposition was received with great cnthueiaain by his own party and very chivalrously acknowledged by Mr. Asquith. Like Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Balfour dealt mainly in negatives, but his description of the gravity of the peril and hie denunciation of the inaction of the Government were worthy of hia great reputation ao a Parliamentary speaker. The strike is, ac he says, "the first formidable display of a policy which, if allowed* would be d*atructive of society." Yet, while the Miners' Federation seeks to paralyse the whole industry of the country, and has come co perilously near to euccess as to spread hunger, bankruptcy, and ipanic broadcast through tho land, the Government has filled three weeks with fruitless negotiations, and now brings down a Bill which, even as a etopgap, offers very little hope. "If the Bill failed in its object and the strike was prolonged," said Sir Edward Grey in his reply to Mr. Balfour, "the Government would not neglect means to secure coal, which ought not to be withheld from the nation." But, as the strike huf> lasted three weeks valready, and the pacific operation of the ' Bill is, to say the least, problematical, the Government should surely have had these alternative methods in active operation 'by now, or at least in an advanced stag© of preparation. With the aid of tho Nationalists and the Labour men the Government carried tho second reading by their normal majority, but, under the crossfire of tho employers and the Miners' Federation, the Bill may be bo riddled that it may never •emerge from committee. A dissolution, as Mr. Balfour says, is iiot to be contemplated at such a time, but it would serve the miners and their advisers right if the effect of their folly was to put the Unfoniste once more on the Treasury Benches.