“SPIRIT UNSHAKEN”

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12538, 30 August 1926, Page 8

“SPIRIT UNSHAKEN”

BRITISH MINERS’ MANIFESTO OWNERS ACCUSED OF PROLONGING THE DEADLOCK “THE PUBLIC WILL JUDGE” By Telegratili.—Press Assn.- —Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received August 29, 11.5 p.m.) LONDON, August 29. The Miners’ Federation, in a manifesto issued after tho conference with Cabinet Ministers, says its representatives attended the meeting with the mine-owners with the genuine desire and hope that they might prepare the way for a reasonable settlement. Unfortunately, the conditions laid down by the chairman of the Mining Association were such as to make a settlement impossible. He stated that the owners insisted on negotiations for national agreements being abandoned in future, and on the miners agreeing to the working day being lengthened by oca hour. Both these proposals were condemned by the Coal Commission. GOVERNMENT DENOUNCED “The federation is well aware of the owners’ belief that the miners will eventually be forced to submit to any terms through the starvation of their families. It is also aware that the owners have been encouraged in this belief by the attitude and actions of the Government through this dispute. But the public will judge themselves whether a settlement enforced by the starvation of women and children, and one in which the vainer will he deprived of the protection of his national trade union organisation, would he likely to be either lasting or conducive to future peace in the industry. “It is sufficient to point out that the spirit of the miners, far from being broken, is resolute and unshaken. At the same time, the federation was prepared to enter negotiations on the of wages, and it deplores the fact that the owners sabotaged discussion on the question by insisting on proposals which had been roundly condemned by the Royal Commission. READY TO DISCUSS WAGES “The federation is ready at any moment to discuss wages, whether with the Government or with the owners, provided it is satisfied that the reconstruction of the industry on the lines recommended by the commission is genuinely taken in hand, both by the Government and by the owners.” AMERICANS PROMISE HELP (Received August 29, 11.5 p.m.) CLEVELAND, August 28. Ben Tillett, the British Labour leader, announced that 21 standard railroad labour organisations in the United States had pledged themselves to give full financial support to “the locked-out miners and three million unemployed in Great Britain,” to whom millions of dollars would be sent.