STILL UNSETTLED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 9 March 1912, Page 5

STILL UNSETTLED.

THE GREAT COAL STRIKE. iilSi-: IN BREAD. (Press Association .— Copyiuqht.) LONDON, March 8 Thevft has been on appreciable change in the strike position. The miners' executive will not yield without instructions from the national conference. Th e summoning of the Scottish owners and representatives to confer with the Premier is regarded optimistically. The Premier, speaking in th e House of Commons, stated that the exigencies of the situation Were not such as to make a Parliamentary discussion desirable. The Industrial Council, owing to trie resumption of the Government negotiations has suspended its meetings until Tuesday. It is reported at Cardiff that some of the leading South Wales owners, hitherto restrained by the extreme , pressure of the "no surrenders," will break away and join the English owners in the set tlement of terms. There has been a general rise of brea/d, | of which the delay and disappointment over the Argentine crop is the controlling cause, but the coal strike hastened in? decision.

The coal exported in February, in view of the threatened, strike' was 62,855 tons above the export for February last year. Four hundred thousand industrial workers are idle» Strikers wrecked. the buildings and burned the engine house, at the Tobrax colliery, where a few nonunionists were working. COAL-OWNERS TO MI ET THE PREMIER. WIDESPREAD DISTRESS. (Rec. March 9, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, March 8. It is significant that a conference of coal-owners from all parts of the country has been convened at the Premier s invitation. One of the features qf the strike has been the small part by the Parliamentarv Labour Party. The Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent declares that'he is unable to cope with the distress, as 80,000 children are affected, and £140,000 weekly in wages is withdrawn

Reference was made recently to the "Morning Post's" suggestion that the British Government should utilise the regular army and the Territorials to work the coalmines of the country and distribute their product. This rather wild kick may serve to remind us that in Britain as felsewhere_ the principle of State ownership of utilities is fast gaining ground. Prior to a few weeks, ago the British Government ran a telephone service. Connected with it were 120,000 subscribei's, involving the use of Half-a-million miles of wire. Eax'ly this year the Government took over the sole control and ownership of all telephone conveniences in the Mother Counti'y. The private owners of these conveniences were bought out, and now the Post-master-General has under his control a system served by nearly two million miles of wires, and seirving 720,000 subscribers. The capital represented by this new state of affairs is twenty-five niillions of pounds stei'ling. Does not this sort of thing compel the question, If telephones, why not coalmines —as the "Morning Post" suggests in anger—why not railways, why not anything which expediency founded upon prudence may suggest? The "Morning Post" running amok may wind up by being able to prove that it has had prophetic vision.