The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 9, 1926. BRITAIN'S COAL CRISIS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 9 October 1926, Page 8

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 9, 1926. BRITAIN'S COAL CRISIS.

Fifty days ago, the delegate conference of the .Millers’ Federation authorised the executive to open negotiations with a. view to ending the coal dispute which had then run for 111) days. The decision was officially announced in the following terms : The discussion was resumed on the question as to whether or not the Executive Committee should he authorised' to endeavour to open up negotiations with the coalowners and the Government with a view to q settlement of the dispute in the coalmining industry, the Committee to report the result of such negotiations to a future conference .so that the districts will finally decide whether to accept or reject terms that may ho ofFcred by the coalowners for a settlement.

“This was carried on a card vote by 128,000 in favour, with 300,000 against, a majority in favour of 08,000. This represents the full membership of the Federation. “It was also resolved that all negotiations for a settlement of the dispute must bo of a national character, and not entered into by districts separately.”

Outside the storm centre of the .strike, ,it was felt that a new situation had been created by the decision of the miners. The immediate object was to _ bring tho owners and miners into conference, but it was felt, tha.t if the Government merely played the part of introducing' the parties to each other and leaving the course of events to them, the new negotiations would he short lived. As custodian of national interests, a largo measure of responsibility a till rests with the Imperial Government, and it, was hoped the parties would he kept together under the restraining influence of Cabinet until they reached a basis of agreement. The two main difficulties which had to be faced were not overlooked. The owners are unwilling .. to concede a national minimum and they insist on an eight-hour day. The Government used its influence, in securing the first, but its policy on the eight-liour-day question excited much misgiving in view of the enactment of _ the Eight Hour measure. On this the miners lire as obdurate in their ref'u nil to accept a longer day as the owners are in demanding it. The Government played for a compromise on the lilies of one of the suggestions in. the Royal Commission’s report. The Commission was emphatic in its condemnation of the owners’ proposal for a return to the eight-hour day, but it mentioned certain suggested changes of practice as deserving "serious consideration.” ; "It might be possible and beneficial, at least in'certain districts,” said the report, "to allow the daily limit to be eight hours or even moie, so long - as the total of 42 hours plus one winding daily was not exceeded in the week as a whole.” This passage was regarded in Government circles as providing • the basis of a compromise on tho hours question. It is worthy of note that tho one condition laid down by the miners iu the official document is that all negotiations "must.be of a national character and not entered into by districts separately.” When these peace terms were offered, independent opinion was loth to believe that ■ the Government would disregard this precious opportunity of finding the means to end an industrial war that has inflicted injury, on the whole economic life of the nation and privation and misery upon millions of human beings. Industrial peace will not be ushered in by barbaric figlit, to a finish tactics—which _ means iu effect the slow dribbling back to work of a great army of sullenly angry men nursing a bitter grievance and resolved in their Hearts to prepare in secret for the day when they can resume the fight. As one London journal said early in August,—on the 110th day of the struggle:

All sides have made stupid blunders in this ill-coiuluctcd controversy. Tho minors made a profound strategical blunder when, instead of announcing at once their roadiness to accept the Samuel Report, the whole Report, and nothing but the Report, they began to pick and choo-se. The Government made an even greater blunder when it delivered itself into the hands of the owners by passing the Eight Hours Bill, and so defying the considered judgment of the Coal Commission on a major issue. The owners, by their sly repudiation of the Report and by persisting in their attitude of taking all they could and giving nothing, put themselves wrong at once and all the time with the mass of public opinion. If there is to be peace now, every party concerned in the dispute will have to eat foolish words and cancel foolish actions. The miners will have to make the heaviest immediate sacrifices, for it is nlmost certain that they will be called upon, if longer hours are ruled out, to nceopt a serious reduction in wages. Their decision yesterday implies the admission that they cannot continue the struggle much longer with any hope of maintaining the solidarity of their ranks, and that they must make the best terms possible. The Government must abandon the eight hours day, and strengthen- the measures for carrying, into effect tile accepted recommendations of the Coal Commission, with an undertaking to extend its policy in this matter within a specified period.

But wiser counsels have not prevailed: the Government’s peace offers have been rejected and the men have thrown down the gauntlet, for a fight to a finish. Unquestionably, the reconstruction and reorganisation proposals in the Coni C< uinn.issKin’s lteport offer the only prospect of a general revival in the fortunes of lie coal industry, or of a prolonged coal peace, and it remains for the eoalowners not to continue stubborniy blind or Um miners not; to become deaf to the grave warnings of nearly six months of turmoil, since the nation will assuredly he compelled to force the Government, in defence of national interests, to take its courage in both hands,

and secure legislative authority to settle the dispute on the lines of the GWI Commission’s report.