STRIKE VIRTUALLY OVER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12605, 16 November 1926, Page 7

STRIKE VIRTUALLY OVER

PUBLIC MEN SAY BRITAIN CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER HOPE FOR TRADE REVIVAL GLOATING OVER MINERS’ DEFEAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED Assuming that the mining dispute is ended, various public men in Britain are counting the cost, and discussing how the nation may most speedily recover from its effects.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received Nowembear 15, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, November 15. “Prepare for a great flood of trade when the coal muddle ends,” said Mr Gilbert Vyle, president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. “We hare been able to hold a good deal of our business by goodwill and prestige, and people abroad have believed in us, so I hope that all the business which was in sight before the strike began will not be lost.” AN INDUSTRIAL PARLIAMENT. Mr p. T. Cramp, the raihvaymen’s industrial general secretary, speaking at Mjddlesbro’ advocated the establishment of an industrial parliament to deal with trade disputes, which, he said, should be free from party politics and class domination. Every interest should be represented in the parliament. If a certain industry could not give a proper subsistence wage it should be reorganised, arid if this were impossible it would be better for that business .to be closed down altogether. ALL TO BLAME Mr J. H. Thomas, M.P., speaking at a railwaymen’s demonstration at Blackpool, put the blame for the strike equally on the masters, the miners and the Government, and said that now there was a moral obligation on all sections to try to save something from the wreck. “The first thing to-be avoided is any gloating over the miners’ defeat,” said Mr Thomas. “There is a big responsibility upon the employers in the districts. The men mu,st be allowed to go back

to work feeling that there is a genuine desire to play cricket and make the best of the circumstances.” Mr Thomas added that a country with a debt of £6,000,000,000. a country dependent for four days out of six upon the foreigner for food, cannot afford such conflicts. BEST TERMS OBTAINABLE Mr Joseph Hall, financial secretary of the Miners’ Association of Yorkshire, speaking at Birdwell, said the struggle was pver, and though the terms wero distasteful they were the best the miners’ leaders could obtain. They were the worst any industrial movement had ever had forced upon it. The alternative was the complete break-up of the federation. The Home Secretary (Sir William Joynion-Hicks), in a speech at Barnstaple, said the coal strike had cost the country £400,000,000. It was a strike against economic facts. The naked truth was that a quarter of a million miners would never find work in the pits. The Government had fought for the country as a whole, which was greater than either the owners or the miners. It certainly did not intend to resign because the revolutionaries demanded it. There was no need for a general election for at laast three years. LOYAL MINERS REWARDED In appreciation of the loyalty of IO.'OOO miners who resumed work on August 20th, the Bolsover Colliery Company has given .them 10 weeks’ .honus, varying from 5s to 12s a week, to . enable Christmas festivities.