THE COAL STRIKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10417, 22 March 1912, Page 1

THE COAL STRIKE.

OPPOSITION TO THE BILL.

HUNGER MARCHERS AT

GRIMSBY

3ERMAN AND CANADIAN COAL

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, March 21

The attitude of the Miners' Federation causes ministerialists grave anxiety as to the fate of the Bill. The owners also seek drastic amendments.

A meeting of Opposition leaders decided that the minimum wage provisions were not calculated to secure permanent peace. Mr Balfour, therefore, will .move the rejection of the Bill.

The South "Wales miners are dissatisfied with the Bill. Stormy weather and snow are increasing the sufferings of the poor at Dardiff. Three hundred hunger marchers at Srimsby appealed to the Mayor for food. The men were suffering keenly ■ml rations were distributed. The German coal at Middlesbrough has been unloaded. The first shipment of Canadian coal, twelve hundred and fifty tons, lias arrived at Millwall. ■ The Engineering and Shipbuilding ■Employers' Federations, representing a thousand firms, employing seven hundred thousand men and paying forty million in wages, carried a resolution protesting against legislating for a minimum wage, and pointing out the |njury inflicted oVi collective bargaining by breach of agreements. . The Cardiff Chamber of Commerce carried a resolution expressing concern at the Government legalising breach of contracts. There was nothing in She Bill preventing a recurrence, and ft was recommended that the Bill jhould not apply to Wales until the sxpiry of the existing agreement in 1015. Mr Grayson counselled the miners to insist on the schedule being embodied in the Bill. He condemned Mr Mann's arrest. Any soldier firing on a striker was not fulfilling the funotion for which he enlisted. He urged Soldiers not to shoot, or shoot high.