MR LLOYD GEORGE AT NEWPORT.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13825, 21 July 1915, Page 5

MR LLOYD GEORGE AT NEWPORT.

AN ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION.

CONFERENCE WITH MINERS'

EXECUTIVE

COAL BILL PASSED.

(R-eeeived July 20, 8.20 p.m.) London, July 20.

Mr. Lloyd George had an enthusiastic

welcome* at Ne^|poi't. The members of the Cabinet immediately conferred with the miners'' executive.

In the House of Commons, the Coal Bill) was read the second lime*

Mr. Runciman stated that owing to the enlistment of one out of every five miners, the output from January to June, which in 1914 was 142 million tons, fell in the same period of 1915 to 127£- million tons. The Bill was a rough and ready method of preventing abnormal prices. The average extra cost iii consequence of the war bonuses would

be between ninepence and a shilling. He had not discovered a coal ring in London. ", Retailers had permitted himl to examine their books, and had agreed to a maximum mice for the summer.

He was prepared W make a similar arrangement for the winter, and w^gald therefore fix arbitrarily a standard price. He hoped the South Wales settlement would be stable and peaceful. Every other coalfield had agreed to the arrangements made for the war.

Sir A. vßy Markham said there was ui-gent need to fix the maximum retail prices, as otherwise the middlemen would fleece the poor.