COAL INDUSTRY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 5 August 1925, Page 5

COAL INDUSTRY.

CARRYING OUT SETTLEMENT TERMS. AIR MACDONALD ON THE AGR.EUEM ENT. BY CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, Aug. 3. It Is authoritatively stated that collieries already closed will be included in the Government- subsidy scheme if the ownens- decide to reopen. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Winston Churchill) has prepared details. The personnel of the' Royal Commission is not yet decided, but- Labour’has already notified that it will object to the .chairmanship of Sir Erie Geddes or Sir Auckland Gedde-s.

The question is raised whether the Treasury is going to control co-all prices in order to minimise- the losses in connection -with the subsidy and ensure that State aid be not abused. It is expected Parliament will vote a, round sum, say £10,000,000, on the understanding that it will supplement the estimate it more is required. The Labour leader (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald), speaking at Dunmo-w, said at the eleventh hour Mr. Baldwin informed the milieus that the Government would give no subsidy and wages must come down. If the Government had fought their policy out one would have respected them. Instead they doubled up. The reason was not that they had changed their minds, but that they saw unity outside, which they were afraid t:» face. The unusual unity of the Trades Union movement was still greater than the unity of public opinion behind the men. The Government came to a sound conclusion but by an abominably bad way.

GERMAN COMMENT’.

AN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS. BERLIN, Aug. 4. The Deutsche Al.legemai-ne Zeitung, representing mine owners’ interest, comments bitterly on the statement ot the British Prime Minister (Mr. Stanley Baldwin) on the coal, dispute. “Mr. Baldwin thought- -a-' few gentle .speeches on the union of Capital and labour would solve the .problem,” ■states -the paper. “Then on the eve of an explosion he had recourse to a method of Avhich tlie consequences are incalculable. He succumbed to coldblooded extortion.”

Tllie newspaper asks: “Is Mr .Baldwin willing to .subsidise all British industries and transform them into S-taite pensioners? The crisis is really international, due to the fact that onethird of the coal produced in the world cannot be used. This must be grasped before a real solution can be found.”