COAL STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1381, 6 March 1912, Page 5

COAL STRIKE.

MORE WORKS SHUT DOWN. RAILWAYMEN THREATEN TO JOIN STRIKERS. MORE TRAINS SUSPENDED. By Te'.ecraDh-l'rcss Aesociallon-Coiiyrleul (Rec. March 11. 1.15 a.m.) Lor Won, March !>. There are now 3."ifl,lJW) persons employed in various industries outside the coal dado who have been thrown idle by the minors' strike. The tnlal includes 108,(1(1!) iu the North of F.ugland, (8.000 in tho Midlands, 70,000 in Wales, (iOOO in the Eastern Counties, 20,000 in the South of England, and 70,000 in Scotland. The Industrial Council discussed the miners' crisis for two hours and then adjourned. .Seven hundred trains a clay have been suspended in Manchester. The railwayinen at Doncaster have resolved to strike if the Government threaten (o coerce the miners. Similar resolutions will be moved at the other railway centres. Tho railwayinen at Xeasden, near Harrow, have appealed to the Ntition.il Knihvaymen's Association to strike in support of thn miners. Some of tho Derbyshire minora aro wearying of the strike. The miners in North Wales are dissatisfied with the minimum of Cs. fixed by the federation, instead of 7s. They threaten to resume, contrary to tho federation's recommendation. The miners have refused to allow several collieries in Northumberland to bo kept in order. The miners in Whitburn, Durham, havo refused to permit tho ventilation and pumping of water from the pits, or the feeding of 100 ponies iu tho mine.

STOPPAGE OF TRAINS. MINERS IN HOLIDAY MOOD. TROOPS READY TO MOVE. London, March 4. Many of the miners spent the week-end at football matches, picturo theatres, musichalls, and coursing matches. Many Derbyshire miners visited the seaside. Train's to tho number of -500 a day have been withdrawn. There is a vast accumulation of provisions in London warehouses, ami people aro ordering heavy supplies of tinned meats, fruit, ar.d Hour. Fifteen London stations of the SouthEastern Railway close to-morrow. Six hundred ponies in tho Yorkshire and Derbyshire mines have been brought to tho surface, some for the first time for twenty years. Owing to the conlminers' strike, seven thousand engine-builders and others at Swiudon, five thousand irunfounders at Lewis, hvo thousand shipyard hands at Jnrrow, and thousands of potters in tho Midlands am idle.

Trains sufficient for the carriage of 20,000 troops aro at Aldershot ready for an immediate start, if necessarv.

MR, ASQUITH SPEAKS. FURTHER WARNING TO STRIKERS. OWNERS CANNOT BE COERCED. London, March I. Replying in the House of Commons lo .1 question by Mr. Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Asqiiith, the Prime Minister, denied Mr. Mavis's statement regarding a minimum wage for nil industries. ]lo (the Premier) was not in the habit of having sly flirtatious with Socialism. Mr. Asquith added that an obstacle to a settlement of tho coal dispute was the amount of tho.minimum wages demanded. The owners raised'iv number of formidable objections to tho men's schedule, and urged that many pits would have to close if the demands wero conceded. It was impossible for the Government to ask Parliament to coerco the owners into accepting tho very figures of tho minimum demanded, and ho warned the miners of the onormous responsibility attaching to entering on tho course they had determined on. The Government felt compelled to pursue a rigorous examination of tho figures both parties had given. Mr. G. IT. Roberts, M.P. for Norwich and Labour Whip, and one-time secretary of tho Typographical Association and President of the Trades Council, Norwich, declared that tho minors wero justified in demanding tho incorporation in a Minimum Wage'Bill of tha rates representing, the basis of what they bclievo to be right. lie appealed to the workers to avoid violence.

BELGIUM MINERS' DEMANDS. Brussels, March i. The Miners' Federation demands an allround advance in wages.