COAL CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14928, 28 February 1912, Page 7

COAL CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

A PLAN TO FORCE OWNERS j ______ COERCIVE BILL SUGGESTED. THE FIRST SHOT FIRED. DERBYSHIRE MINERS OUT. ! By Teleprapli.-rreßS Associ*tion.-Oopyright (Received February 28, 12.30 «i.m.) j London, February 27. A conference of 160 delegates, representing 610,000 miners, held at the Westminster Palace Hotel today, was presided over by Mr. Enoch Edwards, M.P. (Labour), president of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. n Speaking at Grimsby, Sir Ueo. Doughty, M.P. (Unionist), declared that if there was a strike 15,000 fashing boats would become idle, and 160,000 persons would be on the verge of destitution. The Times publishes an article describing the Australian methods of settling strikes, p? Ocularly in New South Wales. The Daily News states that tb.3 miners cannot be coerced while the owners can. Therefore, the latter must grant the minimum wage. L. they resisted, a coercive Bill would be " introduced, which would be passed by the House of Commons in 24 hours, and which would be accepted by the House of Lords as a matter of course. Another development in the coalmining crisis occurred yesterday, when 2000 miners in Derbyshire struck and refused to go on shift. PLAN TO OUST SHAREHOLDERS. A South Wales miners' industrial organisation has been formed in South Wales, not connected with the Miners' Federation. • A pamphlet circulated in South Wales explains that the organisation's methods include so-called irritation strikes, whereby the men will reduce the output of working hours until profits disappear, when the shareholders will be forced to relinquish the mines. The latter must then be carried on in the interests of the workers, who will choose their own managers and thus rid the industry of slave driving. In the event of a strike the railway companies have decided that the English railways shall be treated as one system. The passenger service would be reduced to a minimum, and goods trains used for carrying foodstuffs would run at the rate of 15 miles an hour to economise coal. Sweeping reductions would be made in the staffs.

The Amalgamated Society of Bailway Workers has warned members not to precipitate a sympathetic strike without the executive's instructions. MINERS TO KEEP ORDER. The South Wales miners' executive resolved that in the event of a stoppage all will refrain from approaching the collieries, and will do nothing to cause damage or disorder. Efforts to end the trouble continue. At the Prime Minister's instance the mineowners again conferred among themselves this afternoon." Several of the evening papers report that as a result of the conference the owners are willing to reopen negotiations for a minimum wage. A man named Frederick Crowsley was remanded at Aldershot for distributing handbills urging the soldiers not to fire on the strikers. Speaking in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, Mr. McKenna, said that the Government was fully alive to its obligations for the protection of life and property in the event of a strike. THE FLEET INDEPENDENT. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Churchill, announced that the fleet would be independent of a strike for a considerable time.

Mr James Haslam, Secretary of the Derbyshire Miners' Association and Labour M.P. for the Chesterfield division of Derbyshire, interviewed, said that there would be some plain talking to-morrow. He added, referring to South Wales, that if the Midlanders could cut the painter they would get all they wanted within 24 hours, but they were unable to break away. Although, continued Mr. Haslam, the Derbyshire miners did not desire to strike, if forced to do so they would be as firm as a rock for the benefit of others, and would only allow sufficient work to maintain pumping. Resolutions to this latter effect were passed by the Scotland, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire miners' unions. The coalmine owners in Lanarkshire have stopped the miners' supplies of domestic coal.