THE COAL STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1697, 12 April 1917, Page 2

THE COAL STRIKE.

“IT seems to me to be A - ery late in the day for the men to have adopted conscription as a reason for going out on strike,” said the ActingPrime Minister (Sir James Allen) to a reporter, “and I hope,” he added, “that it is not true that they are coming out. It looks to me as

if the immediate cause was the arrest of some of their leaders on account of the ‘go-slow’ policy, which has apparently been adopted. I cannot conceive that the bulb of the men believe that this is sound policy for them as coalminers, because, to my mind, in the long run, it must be very damaging to them and to their earning capacity. Apart from that, it is a very serious thing to limit the output at a time like this when we want every ounce of produce that a man can give, especially in such an important item as coal. Here we are, with a great war in progress, thousands of our men away. Many coalminers have enlisted and gone to the front, and for patriotic reasons, if for none other, it seems to me that the men ought to remain in their work and to produce all they can reasonably be expected to. The Government cannot allow the go-slow policy to continue, li is ruinous both to the men and to the country.’’