1,000,000 MINERS AND FAMILIES FACE STARVATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17854, 24 May 1926, Page 15

1,000,000 MINERS AND FAMILIES FACE STARVATION.

22ND DAY OF COAL STOPPAGE DAWNS DARKLY. By Telegraph.-—Press Assn.—Copyright. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association, i LONDON, May 23. | The twenty-second day of the eoai | stoppage finds virtually a million miners and their families faced by the grim spectre of starvation with a settlement not a fraction nearer than before the strike. The miners are preparing to fight to a finish, and incidental to this determination come graphic reports from the coalfields of grim hardships. The South Wales correspondent of the "Daily Express" says that distress among miners is hourly increasing, and thousands of families are near the verge of starvation. The plight of women and children is pitiful. Womenfolk are sitting in the doorways ot? endless rows of cottages staring sadly into space. Practically all the elementary scholars are being fed from food kitchens. The miners next week; will reach the end of .their resources; 1 Many have not paid their debts due to tradesmen since the 1921 strike. The president, secretary and all ofl ficials of the Miners’ Union, have decided to give their salaries to the strike fund. * Warwickshire miners receive no strike pay this week-end, their fundi} being exhausted. Long queues of. people are in front of relief offices. A thousand Monmouthshire miners marched to Newport to interview th*» Board of Guardians, urging more generous relief. Local people have provided hundreds of loaves of bread! 1 Appeal by leaders.' The Labour correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" describes the owners’ reply as neither hopeful nor accommodating. Mr Cook, interviewed, said: The owners want absolute freedom to exploit the industry for their own benefit in conjunction with the royalty oto ers, middlemen and the sales agents. They decide unblushingly that they favour both longer hours and lower 1 wages. The whole British LabouF movement will rally .again to the miners’ support in defence- of the present standard of living. Mr J. R. dynes, speaking at Bourne mouth, said; If this basic industry cannot afford, under private ownership, to pay the miners a wage fit for human beings to live upon, it will have to afford a wage under public ownedship. LONDON PRESS COMMENTS. P The “Daily Telegraph." in an editorial. regards the owners’ reply as more, unbending than the miners’. The paper stresses the fact • that the Government cannot leave the situation alone. The "Daily News’’ says the owners’ attitude remains as stubborn as their proposals, and as sterile as nine months ago. The "Daily Chronicle" fails to understand the Government's relapse into indifference and inactivity. The “Morning Post’ gives a tabulated list of the average weekly earnings of miners working underground, -showing that, the highest is. £3.1 Is, and ‘•the lowest £2 7s. The surface .‘workers*' highest is £2 14s. and the lowest £2.

MINERS ATTACK MR BALDWIN OVER TERMS OF SETTLEMENT. AGREED TO SIR H. SAMUEL’S PROPOSALS, REPUDIATED THEM LATER, THEY SAY. Reuter's Telegrams. LONDON, May 22. A suggestion that Mr Baldwin gave countenance to Sir Herbert Samuel s proposals, and later repudiated them, underlies a letter from the Trades Union Congress to Mr Cook, in which an appeal in made that Sir Herbert Samuel should speak without reservation. The letter asks: : -‘‘Will Sir Herbert Samuel deny that consultation took place between himself and Mr Baldwin on the terms of the memorandum?" Tt also declares that the memorandum was accepted by the Trad? Union Council on the definite assurance that the Government would accept the proposals as the basis cf negotiation, and on that understanding the general strike would be cancelled, and the lockout notices withdrawn. Meantime, the Trades Union Congress appeals to the workers to give financial support to the miners.

RAILWAYMEN COMPLAIN OF REINSTATEMENT PLAN. Aus. and X.Z. Cabbie Association. LONDON, May 22. Serious differences have occurred over the question of the reinstatement of railwaynten after the strike. The railway unions had long conferences with the companies yesterday, after which the position was stated to be most critical, but it was hoped that further negotiations would produce satisfactory results. Reports from the north say less than 60 per cent, of the members of the National Union of Railwaynten have been reinstated in certain centres.