OUR HOME LETTER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 448, 8 October 1919, Page 1

OUR HOME LETTER

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THE SANKEY REPORT; BY-ELECTION FfGHTS; LABOR DAILY BURNED; FOREIGN NEWS

From Our Own Correspondent

London, Jnly 16, 1919. All eorfcg of preparations are in hand for the official celebration of peace. Some very ugly plaster statues may be seen decorating th© side walks of Oxfiorfd Street, flags are waving- ervef-y----where, and election bulbs appear, like some novel form of ivy, ©n the faces of the big West End establishmetnte. There is to be Morris dancing and singing in th© parks, and iv some districts Shakespearean performances, an enormous procession and lots of fireworks. T_e Home Office is taking manyprecaution, and appears to expect a big crowd. All wheelekl traffic is*to be prohibited in t n o main thoroughfares, and many places of amusement will be closed for fear of dangerous over-crowd-ing. NO REAL PEACE Meanwhile there are recorded protests from all over the country that the Peace celebrations are a pure mockery since thfer© is no real Peace while our men are still fighting' in Russia. A large number of naval and military organisations have refused to take sny part in the official rejoicings ns a protest against the war with Enssia, tt« demobilisation taniddle, the treatment of returned soldiers *nd th© inadequacy of the scale of pensions. ELECTRICIANS STAND OUT But most disastrous of all to th© governmental bean feast is the action of the Electrical Trades Union (not the first time the Government have found them mor© thaa their match). For a long time now this union h'a3 been at loggerheads with the Natioiml Federated Electrical ' Association. b*e.w, a delegate conference of dis-Lt_-cd?.-b»a&-"-ps_»d i,_a *%J_os!t_g resolution, which has beem endorsed by their national executive; "That all Peace illumination wo.k shall immediately cease, and instructs the district committee to ask th. government at one© to force the National Federated Electric Association to make a fresh offer by the ndght of Friday 11th, with the removal of their previous penal clauses." No answer having been received th© men hay© been called off that particular branch of work. Apparently it isn't so easy to make people rejoice to order, and at the moment mo9t people hay© more serious things than celebrations to think about. THE SANKET EEPOET There is, for instance, the Coal Crisis. The secoi_d reading of the Government's Coal Mintes Bill has brought with it the startling proposal that if they are to abide by the Sankey Award, it will i be necessary to increase th© price to the consumer by 6/- a ton. The Govern- j ment; has put forward as its reason i for this that they havo now to face decreased hours and increased wages, and that for th© last few years owing to absenteeism, strikes and gemeral slackness, the output has been steadily decreasing.

Tho LaboT members pointed out that the Miners' organisation, should have

been taken into consultation on this matter. In the first place, according to the estimate of Sir Evant Jones, the Coal Controller, th© cost of the Sankey Award, allowing for decrease in output, would be an additional _/3 per ton, which would allow 1/2 clear profit for the c-alowners, which is 2d more per ton than they had before th© war. In the second place, the falling off of output was not the fault of the men, but wa 3 due to the inefficiency of the coal owner.. Mine organisation was in a thorough muddle, there was a shortage of tubs, of timber, of railway wagons, and of steel rails. In some cases the owners were waiting to work thie gocd seams till etat© control and excess profits were a thing of the past. Improvements and inventions, snoh as the getti system, had been reported upon and recommended by government commissions, but tb e Treasury refused to grant money and nothing "wag done. Th* Duke of Northumberland was drawing £3 an hour profit from minerals which by right belongs to the nation, and th© mioera wer© asked to increase cutput in the interests of the private owners of this sort. No clear pledge on this question of nationalisation, the most important recommendation of the Sankty Beporr, could be extracted from the Government. Under pressure, Mr. Bonar Law offered that, if the miners would co-operate in every way and stop all strikes for three month s he would suspend the increase in price for that period. Mr. Brace said be could not answer without consultation, but that he would lay the proposal before the Mme_i3* Conference at Keswick, where it is ibv-t* !"".;?•£ di??-o-.c_. -■■»«..■ If th© Miners conclude any euclf bargain (and to gfv© up th© right to strik© even for a limited period i_ a very dangerous precedent) they must receive from the Government an assurance that they really intend to put the Sankey fieport, and especially th© Nationalisation clause, into effect, and secondly, that they will co-operate in ©arciest in the attempt to increase output, by attending to th© muddle whioh exists, rot | only in the mines but in the whole transport service. THE BY-ELECTIONS But besides being an) ©Sort to> dodge th© question of nationalisation, the Government's 6/- dodge is aimed at prejudicing the case of Mr. David Williams at East Swansea, and Mr. John Robertson at Bothwell, for both Labor Party candidates make the Nationalisation of mines part of their programme. The Government wishes to set the consumer against th© miner. They are, however, nob meeting witb any great success, and the I-abcr Party supporters are most hopeful. Polling took place at Swansea last week, but the oversea soldier voter makes it a long time before the result is known. Bothwell polls to-day, and among the many discharged soldiers working for Mr. Eobertson are two of nis four soldier soas. In bot_

cases the local Unions hay« put in tern* fine work. The candidates stand for Nationalisation, no intervention in Russia, fid Oonscxiptiwi, no Pxafitwrisv, a levy on Capital, and proper pensions for th* _.uj._.