NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1379, 4 March 1912, Page 5

NEGOTIATIONS SUSPENDED

BRAINS OF MINERS' MOVEMENT. MODERATES OUT-VOTED. (Rec. March' 3, 5.5 p.m.) London, March 2. The negotiations between the Government and the miners have been suspended to enable delegates to obtain the views of their districts upon the guarantees for a fair day's work. The newspapers and both parties sharply criticise tho miners for refusing to adopt the Premier's proposal. Mr. Smillie, who is tho brains of tho present movement, has been the cliiet spokesman throughout. Messrs. Edwards, Abraham, Ashlo'n, and i Burt, nnd the other older leaders have lost their influence. Tho "Daily News" states the decision of tho federation was reached without discussion. The schedule ■ was obtained after a division in which a bare majority of the extremists overbore the moderates. Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, in addressing the Eighty Club, warned the miners of tho injuries that would bo inflicted upon the public if the strike were persisted in. At South Shields, where seven million tons of coal are shipped annually, business is at a standstill, and many thousands of persons have been thrown idle. Five thousand men at Sheffield are idle, aud forges employing -15,000 hands will closo on Monday. Messrs. Armstrong, .Whitworth, and Company announce the immediate closing of their great engineering works if a settlement is delayed. They hold practically no stock of coal. All the Cardiff ironworks will be closed within four days. Tho Derbyshire ironworks have already closed. The Great Central Railway refuses to deliver coal in transit to Sheffield, asserting it has the eame statutory powers to seize coal for its own purposes as it exercised in the strike of 1893, subsequently paying the market price for the quantity seized.