COAL CRISIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 162, 10 June 1926, Page 8

COAL CRISIS

DEADLOCK IN NEGOTIATIONS. VIEWED SERIOUSLY BY GOVERNMENT. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received June 10, 11.45 a.m. LONDON, June. 9. The Government takes a serious view of the coal negotiations breakdown. The Government’s coal committee met and considered the position and it is believed that the plans discussed included a Government ballot among the miners. Mr A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, in a statement, alleges that the owners’ account of yesterday’s conference misrepresented the whole position. Mr Cook doclares that the miners will not meet the owners again unless shorthand notes are taken. He says that the owners laid down as terms ah eighthour day, a reduction of wages to the level of the 1921 agreement and lower in some districts. The owners, lie said, had not changed an iota. They treated with contempt the questions of reorganisation, selling agencies, the closing of uneconomic pits, etc. The miners’ executive had now returned to their homes and they would continue the struggle. The men would not return to work except on the status quo basis. Lord Birkenhead, speaking at the luncheon of the British Imperial Council of Commerce, referred to the coal problem. He ridiculed the suggestion of the miners’ leaders that the solution was to increase the price of coal with the home manufacturers already struggling to meet foreign competition. Referring to the money the Miners’ Federation has been receiving from Russia, Lord Birkenhead said that, whatever decision the Government reached, there must be a real distinction between private contributions and contributions proceeding from a foreign Government. The Russian contributions were avowedly to foment revolution. —Reuter.