BRITISH COAL CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19550, 5 August 1925, Page 7

BRITISH COAL CRISIS

METHOD OF SETTLEMENT. GOVERNMENT CRITICISED. Pi•«« Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, August 3. (■Received August 4, at 7.50 p.m.) It is authoritatively stated that the collieries already closed will be included in the Government subsidy scheme if the owners decide to reopen them. Mr Churchill has prepared the details. The personnel of the Koyal Commission is not yet decided, but Labour already is objecting to the chairmanship of Sir Auckland Geddes. The question has been raised whether the Treasury is going to control the prices of coal in order to minimise the losses in connection with the subsidy and ensure that the State aid shall be not abused. It is expected that Parliament will vote a round sum—say £10,000,000 —on the understanding that this can be supplemented if more is required. Mr MacDonald, speaking at Dunmow, said that at the eleventh hour Mr Baldwin informed the miners that the Government would give no subsidy and that wages must come down. If the Government had fought its policy out one would have respected it, but instead it doubled up. The reason was not that the members of the Government changed their minds, but they saw the unity outside which they were afraid to face. The unusual unity of the trades union movement was _ still greater than the unity of public opinion behind the men. The Government came to a sound conclusion, but in an abominably bad way, —A. and N.Z. Cable. THE OFFER OF A SUBSIDY. BITTER GERMAN COMMENT. BERLIN, August 4. (Received August 4, at 7.20 p.m.) . The Deutsche Allegemaine Zeitung, representing the mine-owners’ interests, comments bitterly on Mr Baldwin’s statement regarding the coal dispute. It says; “Mr Baldwin thought that a few gentle speeches on a union of capital and labour would solve the problem. Then on the eve of the explosion he had recourse to a method, the consequences of which are incalculable. He succumbed to coldblooded extortion.” . . The newspaper asks if Mr Baldwin is willing to subsidise all British industries and transform them into State pensioners. The crisis is really international owing to the fact that on.?-third of the coal produced in the world cannot be used. This must be grasped before a real solution can be found.—A, and N.Z. Cable,