ACTION TO END COAL STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23966, 5 June 1943, Page 5

ACTION TO END COAL STRIKE

Roosevelt’s Order To Miners RETURN TO WORK BY MONDAY (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright! (Rec. 1 a.m.) WASHINGTON, June 4 Invoking his powers as CommandetV in-Chief. Mr Roosevelt has ordered more than 500,000 striking coalminers to return to \vork by next Monday, on the wages previously applying and with minor concessions as offered by the United States War Labour Board. The Secretary of the Interior (Mr Harold Ickes) has been directed to reopen the mines. The President’s order says that the dispute between tha miners and the operators will be dealt with by the War Labour Board only after the men return to work. Declaring that the strike was in defiance of the Government, the President said: “I must remind the miner* that they are working for the Government on essential war work, and that it is their duty, no less than that of their sons and brothers in the armed forces, to fulfil their war duties.” Mr Roosevelt did not specify how Mr Ickes was to reopen the mines, but it is recalled that when he gave him control over the strike-bound mines he also gave him authority to obtain Army protection. Meanwhile the operators and representatives of the United Mine Workers of America have resumed a joint wage conference, although both groups notified the War Labour Board that they would obey its order not to negotiate contract issues while production remains suspended. The Governors of Tennessee and Alabama are preparing for the immediate induction of striking miners into the Army, after the refusal of local draft boards to induct any men until the Government took adequate step* to meet the strike.

FOOD SUPPLIES IN AUSTRALIA

RELEASE OF MEN FROM FORCES VEGETABLE-GROWING SUBSIDY (Special Australian Corresp., N.2.PA.) (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 4. A vegetable-growing subsidy, to cost between £1,000,000 and £2,000,000, it planned by the Australian Federal Government. ' It is expected to apply mainly to growers supplying service requirements, i Most of these growers work under Government contract. The scheme is regarded as another important step towards solving Australia's food problems. Subsidies or guaranteed prices are already being paid for dairy produce, wheat, ana potatoes. Experts say the subsidy for vegetables will remove the last of the price influences retarding food production. The other major factor in Australian food production, that of manpower, will be -partially met by the release of service personnel for work in both primary and secondary industries. Plans for drafting skilled men to rural industry include the release from the services of farm and station owners, as well as skilled rural workers, and the formation of mobile corps of trained rural workers, aged .under 19 and therefore debarred from service in operational areas. The Minister of the Army (Mr f. M Forde) has announced that 5000 soldiers will be released temporarily to form the nucleus of a harvest flying squad to go wherever there is a shortage of seasonal labour. During the next'financial year, targets for Australia’s agricutural cultivation will include 174,000 acres of potatoes, 600.000 bushels of blue peas, 8,000,000 bushels of barley, and 70,000 acres of :flax.y- - - ‘

CLOSE OF FOOD CONFERENCE

“SECURITY FROM HUNGER FOR ALL MEN ” (8.0. W.) RUGBY, June 9. The United Nations’ food conference ended to-day after the adoption of • programme designed to provide more and better nourishment for all mankind. says a message from Hot Springs, Virginia. At the final plenary’ session, Mr Justice Jones, president of the conference, said that in future mankind would have “not only the will but the means for freedom from want.” He added "By winning security from hunger for all men, we shall win security for free men from the rise and aggressions of tyrants. By winning freedom from want we shall make all men strong, enough to be free.” The message says the work of the conference resulted in an agreement to carry on its work through an interim commission to .be established m Washington before July 15, which would have the task of planning a permanent organisation. The conference approved a resolution calling on 44 nations to participate in post-war planning for a world freed from want. The conference also recommended the creation of an international agricultural authority to collaborate on programmes to increase food production, distribution, and consumption.

BRITISH AIR LINER SHOT DOWN

STATEMENT ISSUED IN LISBON (8.0. W.) RUGBY. June S. According to an agency message, the British Embassy and the' Dqtch Legation in Lisbon have issued a communique stating that the missing British Overseas Airways' air liner, shot down by Germans when flying from Lisbon to Foynes, was unarmed and unescorted. It was clearly displaying commercial signs. This denies the claim made in a German communique that the Luftwaffe had shot down two British bombers and one “transport aeroplane,” thus pretending it was a military operation. The Portuguese people, the message adds, strongly condemn this attack by the Luftwaffe against a civil aeroplane. Quoting a message from Madrid, the Rome radio stated that a Spanish nshing boat picked up five survivors from the missing British Overseas Airways liner which was shot down by enemy aircraft. The survivors, who were in a rubber lifeboat, were found in the Bay of Biscay. They are said to include the crew of the aircraft. The members of the crew were Dutchmen, including the first pilot, Captain Quirines Pepas. Disease in Thailand.—The United States Office of War Information heard the Saigon and Bangkok radios reporting outbreaks of malaria and cholera and an undefined plague in various parts of Jaoanese-occupied countries. The Bangkok radio said that malaria and cholera had broken out in a number of cities in northern Thailand. and that the Japanese had sent 22.0001b of quinine after several requests for this had been made.—Washington. June 3. Prisoners Held by Axis.—According to the German News Agency. British p-rencr;. <•' wa v ; n ("'•"m-iv- and Italy -* the midd’e o' August. 1042. e::ceedrH 150 000 I f v-hich numb”” the Germans i-Hd 83 ono.0 n O. Tlvs total has increased in the last eight month:, says the news agency.—London, June 3.