BRITISH COAL STRIKE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 7

BRITISH COAL STRIKE

A BASIS OF SETTLEMENT. LABOUR SECRETARY’S SUGGESTIONS. INCREASE OF HOURS. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, May 28. Mr Frank Hodges (secretary of the International Miners’ Federation) has advanced suggestions which he declares will provide a real basis of settlement for the coal dispute. The terms include an increase of hours to seven and a-half, for which legislation will be necessary. The agreement shall be for five years, and there will be no reduction of day wages, but there will be an adjustment of the piece-work percentages, which may be reduced to some extern. He suggests that the Government should renew its offer of £3,000,000; also if necessary a ballot of miners should be taken on the proposals. He realises that this is a departure from the miners’ formula, but it must be so. He declares that he is prompted solely by concern for the miners’ future, as he despairs of either the miners or the owners initiating new discussions. “Formality and ceremony of convention must,” he says, “be brushed aside, as the adaptability and resourcefulness necessary to negotiations have gone, and the end may well be starvation or industrial bankruptcy, or both.” He urged the miners to see the truth.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SUFFERING AMONG MINERS. WORKS CLOSING DAILY. SOUP KITCHENS ESTABLISHED. OWNERS CONTRIBUTING. LONDON, May 28. Over 1,000,OCX) minors have been on strike for four weeks to-day, during which time not one hundredweight of coal has been raised in the entire coalfields of Great Britain The men are reported to be as determined to-day as a month ago. Meantime the stranglehold of the industry is becoming more effective hourly. -Works are closing down daily, and the iron and steel industry has I een brought to a standstill. The blast turm « have blown out. At Clydeside alone more than 18,000 iron and steel workers have been rendered idle, and domestic coal is being most severely rationed over the whole country. The train services are skeletonised, and it is expected that racing will be suspended next week. There will be no special and no excursion trains on Derby Day. The King and Queen will go to Epson by road. Every day adds thousands to the ranks of the unemployed. Officials are snowed under by application for relief by those out of work through the coal strike.

Whole communities in the mining districts are existing on poor relief, and soup kitchens have been established everywhere. Rents and rates are unpaid, and many tradesmen in the mining districts are putting up their shutters as they are unable to give further credit. The greatest efforts are being made to spare tne women and children. Funds have been opened and are being generously supported by the owners. One owner sent a cheque for £IOO. Miss Sybil Thorndike and others have issued appeals and the miners have received £IOOO from the Farm Workers’ Union, and many contribution's have been received from abroad. Germany sent £SOOO, Czecho-Slovakia £IOOO, Austria, Holland, Belgium, and Jugo-Slavia several hundreds each.

Strike pay is still being issued, varying from £1 to 5s weekly. A disastrous colliery fire occurred at Bargoed, South Wales. The fusing of an electric wire cause the ignition of napthalene. The flames lit up the whole valley. The damage is estimated at from £20,000 to £3O,OOO—A. and N.Z. Cable. “NO COMPROMISE.” MR A. J. COOK’S VIEWS. LONDON, May 29. Mr A. J. Cook has recovered from the effects of overstrain. In an interview with the Daily Herald, he said the longer the Government and the owners resist the fewer mines will be opened, the immediate consequences of which will be first, a large number of miners drawing unemployment insurance benefit, secondly, there will be a scarcity of coal and a higher price for what is available. Commenting on Mr F. B. Varley’s. M.P.. proposals. he said: “I am sorry that any leader should mislead the Government, the owners or the public. It will only prolong the strike. I visited the coalfields and the soup kitchens in South Wales md Somerset, and the only message I got was ‘No compromise.’ The miners could not live on the wages during April, therefore no reduction is possible. The miners are as much opposed to longer hours as they are to lower pay.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. ‘ A ROYAL DONATION. PRINCE OF WALES’S SYMPATHY. LONDON, May 30. (Received May 30, at 11.15- p.m.) The Prince of Wales, who. is a large coal owner in Somerset, sent 10 guineas to the district miners’ wives and children’s fund, accompanied by a letter stating: “His Royal Highness naturally cannot take sides in any disputes, but we all owe a debt to the miners for what they nave done in the past. Everyone sympathises with their wives and children in their hour of distress. Further, it would oe an undesirable end to any dispute that one side should have to give in on account of the sufferings of their dependents. His Royal Highness is cnnfi dent that with goodwill on either side, there will be a happy issue out of the present difficulties.” MR HODGES’S SCHEME FAVOURED. LONDON, May 30. (Received May 30, at 11.5 p.m.) The Sunday papers’ correspondents report that the miners are increasingly tending to favour Mr Frank Hodges’s scheme for longer hours, and unreduced pay and a long peace. —A. and N.Z. Cable. GOVERNMENT SHARPLY CRITICISED. MR J. L. GARVIN'S OPINION MISTAKEN POLICY PURSUED. LONDON, May 30. (Received May 30, at 11.15 p.m ) Mr J. L. Garvin in an outspoken editorial in the Observer declares: “Procrastination followed by hurry blighted throughout the Government's handling of the coal dispute before the general strike, onlv a week being allowed for negotiations and the same thing is being repeated The Government unnecessarily limited itself to a further £3,000,000 subsidy. Mr Baldwin, while he r> huked the owners in scathing words, 1 as so far only attempted real pressure against the miners. If the Government can think of nothing better than the narrowest interpretation of its formula there will be a war of exhaustion spreading to every trade and costing many times £3,000,000 and producing unparalelled social bitterness. If this happens I believe the nation will not lot£ive the

Government and Liberal sympathies will swing towards Labour. There will be many North Hammersmiths.” He argues that Mr Varley’s and Mr Hodges's schemes justify keeping the open door, and expresses the opinion that a legislative even and a-half hour day.no reduction of wages and a ballot of the miners would prove the shortest and best way out. Moreover, the Government must pledge itself to carry out the commission’s report ;n its entirety during the oresent session at all costs.—A. and N.Z. Cable. A NARROW MAJORITY. LONDON. May 30. (Received May 30, at 11.5 p.m.) The executive of the Northumberland Miners’ Union only deifeated by 36 to 33 votes, a resolution in favour of the resumption of negotiations for the best pos sible national settlement based on the coal Commission’s report. CONTINUED COAL STOPPAGE. STATE EMERGENCY CONTINUED. LONDON, May 29. A Royal proclamation has been gazetted declaring a continuance of the State emergency measures owing to the con tinned coal stoppage. —Reuter.