BRITISH COAL TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19763, 14 April 1926, Page 7

BRITISH COAL TRADE

INCREASING ANXIETY

termination of subsidy

(Press Association—By leiegr.-pb—Copyright.) LONDON, April 13. (Received April 15, at 9 p.m.) The coal situation is causing increased anxiety in view of the termination of the subsidy on April 50. The owners and the men will meet again to-day when the latter will communicate the decisions of the Delegate Conference against lower wages and longer hours. They will also make a statement in connection with their attitude towards the commission’s report, in which connection the Daily Herald says: “The miners like the owners do not accept all the recommendations.”

The Daily Express says it is expected that Mr Baldwin will summon representatives of. the owners and miners to meet him jointly on Wednesday, when he will demand a clear definition of the terms upon which each side is willing to enter into a new agreement from May 1. Mr Baldwin’s task will then be to bridge the gulf between the two sets of terms. This cannot be effected by renewing the subsidy. The Government caused it to be known to-night that it adheres definitely to its decision to end the subsidy on April 30. There may be limited assistance in a few hard cases, but only on the understanding that an agreement is reached.—A. and N.Z. Cable. MAINTENANCE OF SUPPLIES. SPEECH BY EARL JELLICOE. LONDON. April 13. (Received April 13, at 9 p.m.) Earl Jellicoe at a meeting at Croydon in connection with the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies said that in the event of a strike and the population reduced to starvation in a few days the organisation aimed to supply voluntary man-power for essential services. He emphatically denied that it was a provocative or strike-breaking organisation. It would only intervene when the life of the community -*ras threatened. —A. and N.Z. Cable.