WORLD’S COAL TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19551, 6 August 1925, Page 9

WORLD’S COAL TRADE

A GRAVE OUTLOOK. INDUSTRY FACING RUIN. BRITAIN’S SERIOUS PLIGHT. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. GENEVA, August 4. (Received August 5, at 7.5 p.m.) The International Labour Bureau has issued some striking statistics showing that the world’s coal industry is in a serious condition, approaching bankruptcy. Germany is saddled with 10,000,000 tons of unsaleable coal, Belgium with 1,500,000 tons, and Poland with 1,000,000. Britain has 500 pits closed, a quarter of her miners are unemployed, and 74,000 share miners have struck for higher wages. Thirty-six thousand Ruhr minors have been dismissed and another 40,000 are under notice. Poland has 80,000 miners out of work. The Bureau says that the crisis is due to the steady increase of coal production and the constant diminution in the demand, owing to the use of electric and petrol power. Britain has suffered most owing to her failure to introduce modern machinery methods in the mines. Britain’s present crisis would have occurred two years ago except for the occupation of the Ruhr and the consequent‘German importation of British coal. Germany has now regained her pre-war coal export trade, while Britain’s has seriously declined. The Admiralty during 1924 bought only 273,000 tons compared with 1,697,000 in 1913.—A. and N.Z. Cable. BRITISH SUBVENTION. IMPDST EXPECTED ON BEER. LONDON, August 4. (Received August 5, at 7.5 p.m.) Lobby correspondents hint at the likelihood of Mr Churchill paying the cost of the coal subsidy by adding 'a penny a pint to beer, which will bring in £20,000,000. The large breweries are making big profits, and it is known that the industry regards increases in direct taxation as not improbable.—A. and N.Z. Cable. TECH REPORT UNFOUNDED. LONDON, August 4. (Received August 5, at 8 p.m.) It is stated that the reports of an increase in the beer duty are without foundation.— A. and N.Z. Cable. THE COMING DEBATE. FORECAST OP PARTY VIEWS. LONDON, August 5. (Received August 5, at 8 p.m.) The parties held meetings preparatory to Thursday’s debate in the House of Commons on the coal subvention. The Labour members passed a resolution emphasising their solidarity and determina tion to uphold the miners. The Liberals decided to oppose the subsidy. The Conservative industrialists demanded assurances from the Prime Minister that the subvention would be limited to the coal industry and would not be repeated in the case of any other industry. It is understood that Mr Baldwin will express agreement with this view. Mr A. J. Cook, interviewed by the Daily Chronicle, states that the miners will endeavour to clear up before the (Royal Commission why coal which is priced at between 17s and 18s per ton at the pithead costa the consumer £2. ■They will" prove that the wages are utterly inadequate and that the industry is over capitalised and needs reorganising productively, distributively, and financially. The miners, he says, contend that the subvention is due to the inefficiency of the industry.—A. and N.Z. Cable.