PROLONGING TROUBLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19454, 9 October 1926, Page 10

PROLONGING TROUBLE.

Although the decision of the Miners' Conference to withdraw the safety men affects barely half the number employed in the British coalmines, it is a step fraught with grave consequences, not least for the miners themselves. The continued service of these men during the strike has been hitherto approved by the strikers in their own interests. Whatever the outcome of the strike, it can be only a temporary suspension of work, but unless the mines are in a fit state for working when the present struggle is over there will be a loss of time and wages beyond the strike period. The task of the safety men is to attend to the mines' condition. Their withdrawal means that many mines will be flooded, that in some .there will lie subsidences, that noxious gases will accumulate, and that machinery will deteriorate and become unserviceable. It may even mean that some mines and their equipment will become so seriously damaged that a resumption of operations will be problematic : the extent of flooding and similar injury may be so great as to make further raining uneconomic and otherwise impracticable. Tho reluctance of prominent strike leaders to agree to the drastic step taken by the conference can be well understood, and that every newspaper supporting the miners' cause condemns the withdrawal as injurious to the men themselves is not surprising. The decision is in effect an act of sabotage, in no real way distinguishable from the violent wrecking of industrial machinery. That it may add greatly to the national wastage occasioned by tho strike is undeniable. A large circle of industries is already harmed by the strike, for they depend upon adequate coal supply. A prolonging of this dearth beyond the period of the strike will further embarrass them. On the basis of figures presented to the House of Commons, the coal stoppage may be reckoned to have cost Britain in various ways £15,000,000 a day. Even at a much lower figure, the loss bound to ensue from this decision of the Miners' Conference will be tragically great, and in this loss the miners must largely share.