THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1927 STRIKE CONSEQUENCES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 207, 16 August 1927, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1927 STRIKE CONSEQUENCES.

YESTERDAY the position of the A British coal industry, a matter of serious importance to the Dominion’s food producers for export, was discussed in this column, the text afforded being a cablegram regarding Mr. A. W. Cook's renewed activities. A further message to-day suggests as being initiated some promising scheme of reformation in the constitution and aims of the British Miners’ Federation. It may, therefore, be ol immediate interest to give some facts and figures in connection with the British industry that were published recently in the Trade and Engineering Supplement of the "Times” relative to the loss of trade due to last year’s strike. We are told that, although during the strike the European countries made use of American coal to a limited extent, either by direct purchase or by the absorption of cargoes re-export#.'! or redirected by British importers, tlje deficiency caused by the cessation of British exports was made good for the most part by the coal-producing countries of Europe themselves. To Europe only 14,000,000 tons of British coal were exported in 1926, as compared with 36,000,000 tons in 1925; but against this there Was au increased production in Europe itself of roughly 39,000,000 tons. The chief contributors to this increase were Germany (12,600,000 tons), Russia (9,000,000 tons), Poland (6,300,000 tons), France (4,400,000 tons), snfi Belgium (2,300,000 tons), but, in addition, Czechoslovakia, the Same, Holland, and Spain all increased their outputs. In the first four months of the present year 17,200,000 tons of British coal were shipped abroad, or only slightly less than the quantities exported in the corresponding periods of 1924 and 1925. In order to achieve this result, however, the British exporter has given the foreign consumer practically the whole of the saving in operative costs secured by the new reduced wages agreements,

so it is idle to assert that these sacrifices have been in vain or unnecessary.

The recovery in Britain’s export trade, however, has not been accompanied by a corresponding decline in the output abroad. Thus the Frencn output in March was 249,000 metric tons above that for March, 1926, that of Belgium 339,000 tons higher, and that of Germany 2,580,000 tons higher, while the United States production has increased by over 10,000,000 tons, and that of Poland also shows some advance. The production pf British coal was slightly less, but 3,400,000 tons above the monthly average of 1925. It will thus be seen that when other countries are encouraged by a strike in another country to increase their production it is not easy to induce them to relax their efforts, and it is this fact which is responsible for the present situation.

Nor is it to be forgotten that thesi consequences are not confined to the coal industry alone. The lack, or higher cost, of fuel for motive power held up many other staple industries, thus letting rivals in their products into what were British markets. These markets are just as difficult to recover as are those for the coi! itself. Hence hundreds of thousands of workers besides the miners have suffered, and are still suffering, from the results of the ill-judged, ill-time J, and ill-directed strike. As Mr. Frank Hodges, secretary to the International Miners' Federation, —also quoted yesterday—puts it: “It was too commonly assumed that, when the strike ended, n great and pro tracted boom would be experiemed in our export trade. But this perfunctory conclusion reckoned without the permanent influence gamed by our rivals in the world market as a result of our prolonged absence from it. It is amazing that even the veriest tyro in leadership should have, ignored the elementary conclusion that you cannot ‘fool about’ with the normal flow of trade and expect to emerge from a seven months’ stoppage of-production as prosperous js you Were before it began.” . . . To-day’s message tells Us, though only on the authority of an as vet officially unconfirmed newspaper article, that the Contemplated re. organisation of the British Miners’ Federation "indicates a return to pure industrialism.” This, as is said, is a truly significant movement on the part of a trade union that has fostered revolutionary doctrines more than any other in the country. Possibly this latter distinction is not to be wondered at when w’e come tn consider the nature of the work and the deprivations and hardships those engaged in it have had to endure. At the same time, the results of the strike, the most complete and protracted in the history of British industry, must have shown that ready resort to that bludgeoning weapon is not going to mend matters, but only serves to inflict fresh bruises from which it takes long to recover. Assuming this new disposition on the part of the miners :<■ be put into effect, it may be hoped that the owners will show a dis. position also to meet them half-way, and that between them a new era for this great key industry will be inaugurated.