CABINET BLAMED

Southland Times, Issue 19986, 28 September 1926, Page 7

CABINET BLAMED

THE COAL CRISIS FAILURE TO OBTAIN SETTLEMENT GOVERNMENT fiercely ASSAILED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) London, September 26. The Miners’ Executive will consider the Government’s decision on Monday and also confer with Labour members of the House of Commons. Mr Ramsay MacDonald in an interview with the Daily Herald said the Government must be made primarily responsible for the situation the industry was now facing, but Labour members would continue their efforts to secure a settlement. Mr Cook, speaking at the Memorial Hall wished Mr Baldwin to remember he was Prime Minister, not a coal-owner. The fact that over 300,000 miners seldom brought home £2 per week was at the bottom of the present struggle. The coalowners would have been beaten long ago but for the protection of the State. It would be many weeks yet before the struggle was finished. Starvation might do it, but a settlement thus imposed would be broken down as soon as possible. He concluded that every Labour member would be in his place in the House of Commons on Monday and Tuesday and there would be an historic scene.—A. and N.Z. DEBATE IN COMMONS ARRANGED. MINERS’ LEADERS ANXIOUS FOR PEACE. London, September 26. After tabling emergency regulations the Government intends to-morrow to move an adjournment in order to provide an opportunity for a general debate on the coal dispute. Mr Baldwin will make a general statement dealing with the recent negotiations. Mr Ramsay MacDonald and Mr Lloyd George will lead the Labour and Liberal attacks. It is an open secret that the majority of the miners’ executive has concluded that the time has come to obtain some sort of settlement in order to save the existence of the Federation. The executive meets the Parliamentary Labour Parry on Monday, the Council of the Trades Union Congress on Tuesday, and the Miners’ Delegates Conference on Wednesday.—A. and N.Z.