ANXIOUS WEEK AHEAD.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18520, 18 March 1930, Page 9

ANXIOUS WEEK AHEAD.

Problems Facing Government. INTERESTING DEBATES PENDING. (United Press Association—By Electrla Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 17, 10.15 p.m.) LONDON, March 16. An anxious week is before the Government in the House of Commons. The in committee stage of the Coal Bill concludes on Thursday, the critical day of the Bill, which proposes that district committees of owners should be empowered to fix minimum prices.

Conservatives and Liberals both object to the provision, threatening to combine against the Government, and have tabled a joint amendment deleting the sub-section. The trouble is, Ministerial circles state, that the adoption of the amendment will inevitably cause the withdrawal of the Bill, a course which the miners bitterly oppose, as it would mean the sacrifice of the prospect of a reduction of hours during the coming summer.

Obviously, it would be dangerous to antagonise such a body of Labourites, so the Government is faced with a most difficult decision. The other issue to be raised in the Coal Bill is the protection of public utility societies from abnormal increase in the price of fuel. Still another interesting debate on Monday arises from Mr A. V. Alexander’s Justification for the sweeping naval reductions, in which the principal critic will be Mr Winston Churchill.