COAL STRIKE BILL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1395, 22 March 1912, Page 5

COAL STRIKE BILL.

MINISTERIALISTS ANXIOUS,

DRASTIC AMENDMENT SOUOHT "HUNGER MARCH "AT GRIMSBY. Uy Tdcfrraph—l'reFs AfiEoriation-Oopyright (Kec. March '22, 0.5 a.m.) London, March 21. The .itlitudo of tho Miners' Federation towards tlm .Minimum W«{fo Bill is causing the Ministerialists grave anxiety as to (lie fatu of the Bill. Thi) owners aro also seeking drastic amendments. A meeting of the Opposition leaders decided that tho minimum wage provisions were not calculated to sectiro permanent pence, and Mr. Balfour will therefore move their rejection. The South Wales miners aro dissatisfied with tho Bill. Stormy weather and snow are increasing the sufferings of tho poor at Cardiff. Threo hundred "hunger marchers" n<, Grimsby appealed to tho Mayor for food. The men wore suffering keenly, and rations wero distributed. German Coal Imported, German coal has been unloaded at Middlesborough. Tho first shipment of Canadian coal, consisting of 1250 tons, has arrived at Millwall. Tho Engineering and Shipbuilding Employers' Federation, representing a thousand firms employing 700,000 men, and paying .£ 10,000,000 in wages, has carried resolutions of protest against legislating a minimum wage and pointing out tho injury that will bo inflicted on collective bargaining by the breach of agreements. Cardiff Protest. Tho Cardiff Chamber of Commerce has carried a resolution expressing concern at tho Government legalising the breach of contracts. There was nothing in the Bill preventing the recurrence of tho present trouble. Tho Chamber recommended that the Bill should not apply to Wales until tho expiry of tho existing agreement in Wls. Socialists and Soldiers, Mr. Victor Grnyson, tho Socialist leader, counselled tho miners to insist that the schedule should be embodied in tho Bill. Ho condemned Mr. Tom Mann's arrest, und declared that any eoldior firing on a striker was not fulfilling the function for which ho enlisted. Hβ urged tho soldiers not to shoot or to shoot high.