MINING PROBLEM.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19166, 24 November 1927, Page 9

MINING PROBLEM.

ANOTHER SCENE IN COMMONS. CONSERVATIVE CRITICISES MR BALDWIN. (BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN IND N. 7. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, November 22. In the House of Commons Mr Baldwin told Lord Cavendish-Bentinck (Conservative) that the Government ha'i given attention to all aspects of the mining problem. It was impossible in the course of an answer to a question to deal with members' suggestions for incieasing the school leaving age in colliery districts, for superannuation of miners at the qge of sixty, and for the improvement of housing. Lord Cavendish-Bentinck: Have you given attention to Sir Alfred Mond's declaration in the Press that "the Government can no longer remain aloof and indifferent to the serious crisis in f he mining industry." Mr Baldwin did not rise. Labour members shouted: Answer! Answer! Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal): Will Mr Baldwin answer in the course of the debate? Mr Tom Williams (Labour): Don't ask questions. Show that it is tho Government'B duty to attempt to solve the problem. Mr J. Wcstwood (Labour): Does Mr Baldwin's silence mean that the seriousness of the problem has made him speechless? The Speaker called on the next question. Mr Baldwin later told Mr Ramsay Mac Donald that the latter's coal censure motion might be taken on November 29th, provided that the committee stage of the Unemployment Bill was finished on November 28th. The Right Hon. G. R. Lane-Fox, Secretary for Mines, in answer to a question, "sail that thero were 923 fatalities in mines in 1925, and 943 in 1927. Serious accidents were 3707 in 1025 and 3889 in 1927. Mine accidents were always fluctuating. Ho did not agree that these increases were attributable to longer working hours.