BRITISH GOAL DISPUTE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18053, 29 September 1920, Page 5

BRITISH GOAL DISPUTE

CRISIS NOT YET OVER.

TRANSPORT WORKERS ANXIOUS

Prose Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, September 27. The transport workers' leaders havo circularised the affiliated unions requesting further powers on tho ground that the c , oru ! crisis is by no means over, and that positive action of a strike character may faco them during tho present week.— Router.

SITUATION MUCH BRIGHTER.

OWNERS AND MINERS OPTIMISTIC,

PROSPECT OF LASTING SETTLE-

MENT.

LONDON, September 27. (Received Sept. 28, at 10.30 p.m.) The coal situation is brighter than it has been for some weeks. General satisfaction is manifested by tho owners and miners at tho prospect of tho negotiations reaching a lastmg settlement. The'belief is. confidently entertained that the datum line will bo fixed at to-morrow's conference. In this connection Lord Abercromby, chairman of the Sheepbridge Colliery, anticipates that the line will be approximately 250,000.000" tons, wliich is well below what the men produced in the past. It is understood that the miners are anxious that the datum line will be so determined as to secure on the present output a 2s advance.—Reuter.

(Received Sept. 28, at 11.35 p.m.) A joint conference of coal owners and miners sat for three hours and discussed tho eauso of tho reduction in output and tho means of securing an increased output, and then adjourned until to-morrow for the' purpose of enabling- the miners to consult with their respective committees. It is understood that negotiations axe proceeding in the friendliest manner, and there are grounds for hoping that a mutually satisfactory settlement will be reached immediately. It is expected that a definite decision will be submitted to the National Conference of miners' delegates in London on September 30 for acceptance. Meanwhile, however, a meeting of the Executive Council of the South Wales Miners' Federation, Cardiff, passed a resolution declaring that in. view of the very general protests from the districts against committing the miners in the present negotiations to the future regulation of wages By output, the council has decided to telegraphy to the Welsh representatives on the committee of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain stating that the council js unanimously of the opinion that the present demand for increase in wages should be settled, and the whole matter of the consideration of present wages and the method of regulation of future changes should bo the subject of investigation and further consultation with the whole of the workmen.—Reuter.

SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS.

ACTION OF WELSH MINERS,

LONDON, September .28. (Rec. Sept. 29, at 1.10 a.m.) While it is believed that the coal owners and miners have reached a provisional agreement regarding tho new output basis, the action of the Welsh miners' executive has introduced a serious complication, which means that the Welshmen insist -upon an immediate grant of 2s. The demand having been made before the output basis has been fixed points to a possible separate strike action if the Welsh objections are not sustained.—Reuter. •