THE COAL MINERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 126, 14 February 1918, Page 6

THE COAL MINERS

( STATEMENT BY MR'. SEMPLE. . ; ..'.-''rßy*;T«l6sfaph".—Press Association. Westport, February 13. ':'' Mr. Robert Semple called at the '■Westport "Times" office this morning ■f[ and stated that the miners had never ?., even conceived the matter of a strike. , Officially, he knew nothing about the ■ i.- supposed strike. The rumour was ut- '■: terly without foundation; but there was terrible discontent among the min- • .ere. at the ever-soaring increase in the ''■' cost of living. It was originally thought ,' the Government was going to make an ' honourable effort to try and decrease . the "cost of living, but the exact opposite had been the case. In this connection there was tremendous discon- .-. tent permeating, tho ranks of Labour. However, the idea of a strike was pre-'■-posterous, because if there was any- ' tiling the miners loathed it was a strike. Mr. Semple put great emphasis on the last remark. All the miners were doing, ho said, was to force the Government to recognise that things were getting intolerable from the workers' point of view, ■ and that the time had arrived when the powers that be should do something substantial to relieve the situation, but the miners hated the name of "strike." However, thero was such . a tiling as a breaking point. Feeling regarding sending Mr. P. 0. Webb., to the front was running tremendous--1 ly high. In the recent by-election tho Government had failed to find a man to put up against Mr. Webb. The position, practically, now was that three men had vetoed the opinion of ' 20,000 electors of the country. "This was despotism in the highest degree," • said Mr. Semple.