COAL STRIKE DEBATED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19469, 27 October 1926, Page 13

COAL STRIKE DEBATED.

SITTING OF COMMONS. BITTER LABOUR MOOD. EMERGENCY REGULATIONS. GOVERNMENT FIRMNESS. WAR ON THE AGITATORS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received 11.35 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Oct. 25. A special sitting of the House of Commons was held to-day to renew tbe emergency regulations in connection with tho coal strike until November 9, when the ordinary session will begin. Commander J. M. Kenworthy, member for Kingston-npon-Hull Central, took his seat on the Labour benches in pursuance of his announced intention of joining that party.

Mr. J. R. Clynes, Labour member for Manchester, said it was deplorable that there should be no statement from the Government in connection with the strike. This meant nothing but another profitless debate.

Although thousands of miners had been driven back to work, the men would not surrender except to the pressure of starvation. He appealed to the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, to take immediate steps to procure an atmosphere which would lead to peace. Men's Leadership Lamentable. The Liberal leader, Mr. Lloyd George, appealed for a return to the proposals made some weeks ago by Mr. Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He said these were the most likely to produce an honourable peace. Lasting peace in the industry was not to be procured by driving the men backto work at the point of starvation. Mr. Baldwin said the country would be asked in due course to give its judgment on the events of this year. When that- time came it would face the position. The leadership of the miners in the last few months had been lamentably incompetent. Every offer made by the Government had been rejected. He admitted failure to that extent. No Further Government Offer. It was a tragic state of things, said the Prime Minister. It would be wrong to make believe that negotiations were in progress when there were none. The Government's proposals had all been rejected, and it had no further proposals to make. The only thing he was quite clear about as to the future was that so long as tho affairs of this great industry had to be negotiated between tho personalities who had attempted to carry out the negotiations so far there never would be much hope of a settlement. Lieutenant-Colonel G. R. Lane Fox, Parliamentary Secretary of Mines, in replying on behalf of the Government, said if the miners really wanted to settle the dispute it was open to them to make provisional settlements in the districts. This could be done in a few days if the local leaders were allowed to do it. The purpose of the prolongation of tho dispute was simply to save the faces of the few men at the top. The Ban on Cook's Speeches. Mr. F. G. Penny, Conservative member for Kingston-upon-Thames, said the Opposition had not put forward any constructive proposals. Amid Labour protests he asked if Mr. A. J. Cook, general secretary of the Miners' Federation, was paid for every speech he delivered. Tho Home Secretary, Sir William Joyn-Son-Hicks, in justifying the action taken by the Chief Constable of Staffordshire in preventing Mr. Cook addressing meetings at Cannock Chase, recalled the police report of one of Mr. Cook's speeches. In this he had described the police as "dirty blue-bottles."

However, said the Minister, it was not necessary to give a definite reason except the Chief Constable's decision that a breach of the peace might havo occurred had Mr. Cook been allowed to speak in Staffordshire. The debate was adjourned. The House of Lords agreed te a continuance of tho regulations after Lord Haldano had raised the question of the prohibition of Mr. Cook's meetings. The Earl of Birkenhead said Mr. Cook's concern was not. to procure a settlement of the dispute but to destroy a British industry, firstly with tho object of advertising himself, and secondly of applying the doctrine of nationalisation to the coalfields.

Mr. Churchill's plan for the settlement of the coal dispute referred to by Mr. Lloyd George was submitted to the mineowners by the Chancellor on September 8. Tllo plan was:— 1. A national conference of owners and miners "laying down certain broad principles" and recommending "practical steps." 2. With this "national guidance," and in conformity with "the agreed general principles," "the task of negotiating acreements on wages, hours and other conditions" would be undertaken in each district, and on the basis of these district acreements work would be resumed immediately. 3. A national agreement would then be concluded "governing many, if not all, of the points that have hitherto been dealt with on a national basis." In his covering letter to the owners Mr. Churchill said : Hitherto national settlements have prescribed the way in which the percentaees payable from time to time in the districts should be determined, viz.—the ratio of division, the intervals of ascertainment, the principles of recoupment, the definition of "other costs," and the minimum percentage payable. They have set up a national board for the industry. They have laid down the principle of subsistence wages to be determined in the districts. They have defined the various districts and made provision for their alteration by local agreement. It is obviously quite impossible in the present circumstances for any conference sitting in London to do more in the first instance than lay down certain broad principles and recommend the practical steps necessary to secure an early and universal resumption of work. Wo believe that with such national guidance the task of negotiating agreements on wages, hours and other conditions could be undertaken in each district, with the assent of both parties, under favourable conditions and without any further delay.

COAL FOR ARGENTINA.

PORT KEMBLA SHIPMENT. CONSEQUENCE OF STRIKE. A. and N.Z. SYDNEY, Oct. 2G As a result of the coal strike in England tbo Union Company's steamer Waikawa has been chartered to load 6000 tons of coal at Port Kembla for Argentina,