COAL STRIKE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 August 1926, Page 5

COAL STRIKE

MINERS’ NEGOTIATIONS. FOR. NATIONAL SETTLEMENT A LIVELY DELATE. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. LONDON, Aug. 17. The miners’ delegate conference resolved that. negotiations for a settlement must be of a national character and not by district settlement. The London,miners’ executive meets this morning to decided on future action. In the. light of the conference decision it is certain that it will approach the Government during the day. The Ministers chiefly concerned returned' last night. Mr Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, is expected at Downing Street at noon. All accounts agree that to-day’s debate was .very lively, the extremists demanding to know why Air. A. J. Cook the miners’ secretary, after preaching “no surrender ’’ now urged a compromise. Mr. Cook’s answer is not recorded. Delegate after delegate vehemently argued against negotiation; o thers suggested means of tying the executive’s hands. Mr. Cook pleaded for the acceptance of the principle' of negotiation. He argued: “If the Government refuses we will have put them in the dock, but something is bound to happen and then we can report what we have got. Meanwhile the executive will know exactly how far it may dare go.” Mr. Herbert Smith: “Let us get do wn to. 'brass tacks !’ ’ Tile voting on the motion to re-open negotiations was 438,000 for 360,000 •against. The minority consisted of Yorkshire, Lancashire, South Wales and Forest of Dean.

The Daily Herald states: “It would be wrong to assume that the decision means the beginning of surrender, or that a settlement is certain. But if the Govermeiit. and owners accept the offer in the spirit in which it is made, there is every reason to anticipate a settlement. ’ ’