COAL STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1384, 9 March 1912, Page 5

COAL STRIKE.

NO SIGNS OP ENDINGGENERAL RISE IN PRICE OF BREAD. MINISTERIAL NEGOTIATIONS. By Teierrapn— Fres» Association—Copyrlgnl (Rec. March 9, 0.5 n.m.) London, March 8. There is no appreciable change in the strike situation. • The executive of the Miners' Federation will not yield without instructions from the National Conference. The summoning of the Scottish owners' representatives to confer with the Premier is regarded optimistically. Mr. Asquith, in the House of Commons, stated that the exigencies of tho situation were not such as to make Parliamentary discussion desirable. The Industrial Council, owing to the resumption of the Government negotiations, has suspended its meetings until Tuesday. It is reported at Cardiff that some leading South AVales owners, who have hitherto been ietained by the extreme pressure of the "no-surrender" party, will break away and join the English owners in accepting the proposed terms of settlement. There has been a general rise in the price of bread. Delay and disappointment'over the Argentine wheat crop is the controlling cause, but the coal strike has hastened tho decision. Tho coal exported in February, in view of the threatened strike, brought the total export to 628,555 tons above that of February of last year. Four hundrel thousand industrial workers have been rendered idle by the strike. Strikers wrecked the buildings and burned the engine-house of the Tobrax colliery, Midlothian, where a few non-union-ists were working.