THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. BRITAIN'S COAL CRISIS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 88, 30 March 1926, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. BRITAIN'S COAL CRISIS.

There is no exaggeration whatever in the words attributed in one of to-day’s cable messages to Sir W. I Joynson-Hicks, Secretary for Home Affairs in Mr. Stanley Baldwin s Ministry: “We stand on the edge of a precipice. 11 depends on the employers and the employed in the coalmining industry whether there I will be a trade revival or whether strike and lock-out will destroy the hope of revived, possibly for years.” 1 As matters stand for the present, and are likely to stand for at least years to come, the recovery and prosperity of the main body of Great Britain’s essential and standard industries, providing employment to the many millions ot woi'King hands, depends on a supply of coal at prices somewhere in accord with those ruling in rival exporting industrial countries. This, of course, is altogether apart from those with the good fortune of having cheaply generated hydro-electric power at command. The problem, too, is not one of supreme importance to Great Britain alone, it is one in whose solution the security and progress of most parts of the Empire are deeply involved. The crippling ot British export Hade for want of cheap motive power to drive the i wheels of industry supplying it with ■commodities to send into highly competitive markets abroad must, ' in particular, necessarily reflect adversely on this little country. This can be readily recognised if we only ■ bear in mind that the people of the Old Country are taking and jiaying ; for considerably more than 80 per cent of our total exportable produce, ; all going duty free and without restraint or restriction into its markets. It should therefore be -apart altogether from the. sentiments of sympathy that should also be stirred with intense interest that the people : of the Dominion, and especially its primary producers, should follow the news we get of the current negotiations for the settlement of (he crisis , that now threatens. ' These negotiations will have to be based upon the report and recommendations which were recent! v issued by the Commission of invest! gation set up by the Government, and which the Government itself has: adopted with but little in the way 'of reservation. For the moment at any rate, the main issue must necessarily be that of wages. It has been very clearly shown that, as at present j conducted, the industry as a whole i cannot, in competition with foreign i countries where both wages and the ! standard of living are lower, go on (paying the workers even at the i admittedly low rates that have of I recent years been ruling. This being I the case, the Commission has been (able to suggest no remedy that does . not necessitate fundamental rej organisation of the whole industry (and reform in its methods. The proposals in this direction that it (has put forward, however, are none ! of them capable of being carried out I at short order. The pressing question of the clay will therefore most ■ assuredly be as to how the time is to > bp tided over until these proposals, or such of them as are found mutu- ‘

ally practicable and acceptable, can be brought into operation. It is in this respect that the discussions must find their initial and perhaps their greatest difficulty, and one that will need the greatest delicacy and restraint, in the handling. It is, however, a regrettable fact that there can be no very strong | hope of the necessary restraint being exercised. Even among the mineowners there are those who cannot bring themselves to regard the problem from any point of view other than their own. But these, we may lake it, arc in the minority and arc, in any event, amenable to legislative authority without fear of any serious consequences. The case is different with the miners themselves, who are, for the time being at any rate, very much open to the influence of their Federation secretary, Mr. A. J. Cook. This influential official has obviously set himself to make the negotiations as difficult as possible by throwing broadcast threats as to the eruption of physical force that will follow should the men not get their own way. Mr. Cook, and others with him, are bent on the complete smashing of private ownership, and nothing short of this will content them. That, of course, is a revolution that is not going to be brought about to-day or to-morrow, even by resort to violence. In the meantime the attitude thus adopted cannot but check any disposition towards good will and mutual concession evinced by the other side. Mr. Cook and his fellows would, in fact, put the owners upon a fight for their very existence, and under those conditions, should they get their way, the. outcome can scarcely be one that will bring permanent peace and satisfaction. Nor are the sane counsels of Mr. J. H. Thomas, the railwaymen’s secretary, likely to carry much weight, for it is alleged that the railway employees have much bettered their position at the probable expense of the miners, whose product is thus made subject to heavier freight charges. The outlook is thus one that cannot but occasion grave anxiety.