THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1926. THE BRITISH COAL INDUSTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19696, 25 January 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1926. THE BRITISH COAL INDUSTRY.

In- the Old Country the question as to what is going to happen to the coal industry, when the period of truce promoted by the Government at the expense of the taxpayers expires, is evidently engaging renewed attention. The Government's decision to subsidise the industry for a limited time averted last year the consequences of a disastrous upheaval, but there is great uncertainty concerning the future. It was only a temporary peace that was secured as between the miners and the coal-owners by the adoption "of a costly expedient, and, while the Coal Commission has been conducting its investigations in the meantime,, there is evidently no widespread optimism respecting the likelihood of the discovery of a satisfactory means of. preventing a recurrence, perhaps under worse conditions than before, of the clash the fear of which prompted the Government to intervene in the national interests. According to a London message Labour is preparing plans for adoption in the event of a national emergency due to the coal crisis. One of its officials has been explaining that the Labour Party is organising to assist in feeding the people in the event of an upheaval, feeling that it is incumbent upon it to assist the Government "provided that the Government's scheme does not make Labour's plans impossible to operate, and that we do not find ourselves engaged in strikebreaking." These reservations imply that the Labour Party is desirous of playing a neutral role as between the parties to the coal dispute, while doing something to minimise the effect upon the community of a strike, should it come to that. It is not disclosed, however, that officially the Labour Party is exerting its influence for the prevention of the upheaval against which it is said to be preparing. For its suggestion that the Government should co-operate with, the Trade Union Congress —"as a Labour Government would do were it in power" —for the safeguarding of essential industries, Mr Baldwin and his colleagues will not feel particularly grateful. The Government was much criticised, it may be recalled, for its surrender last August to the trade union movement's threat of a national stoppage. It was in face of that threat that it bought off the miners and the coal-owners. According to one newspaper the Government has "disclosed" its plans for action in the event of a general coal-mining crisis, and it is believed that immediately Parliament reassembles Mr Baldwin will propose the prolongation .of a slightly modified subsidy. That seems not unlikely. Last month the Government asked Parliament to sanction a supplementary vote of £9,000,000 for the subvention to the coal industry, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stating that he anticipated that the total cost to the country would be between £20,000,000 and £24,000,000 for nine months. A doubling of the original amount will not surprise those who foresaw that there was no certainty as to what the subsidy would eventually cost the country. The inquiry which the Coal Commission is conducting with the object of investigating methods of improving the productive efficiency of the coal industry and its competitive power in world markets was lo be completed, according to the Government's expectations, "in good time before May, 1926." In the cyurse of its sittings the Commission has listened to some plain speaking on both sides. Mr C. P. Markham, chairman and managing director of collieries raising ten million tons of coal a year, told the Commission recently that the whole trouble in the industry was with the men's union, tho whole of the miners' business having got into the hands of the Bolshevists. "This country is not working to-day," he declared. "It is the last thing anyone wants to do—to work. . . . You have only put off the evil day. Wo have to have a fight whatever happens, and whatever this Commission decides." Tho same witness said he supposed there was not a collier's house that did not spend from eight to ten shillings a week on kinemas. Not much has been heard pointing in the direction of a fulfilment of Mr Churchill's recently expressed hope that the parties would get together and grapple with the problem, so that the coal trade might regain its old independent position. But the subvention to the industry will assume a costly aspect if,, in the sequel, it should turn out that it served merely to delay an iudustrial upheaval.