Great Britain

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 69, 21 July 1915, Page 5

Great Britain

WAR EXPENDITURE.

ANOTHER CREDIT OF 150 MILLIONS. GRAND TOTAL 1012 MILLIONS

United Press Association. (Received 9 a.m.) London, DJulv 20

Mr Asquith, in the House of Commons, moved a credit of 150 millions to meet the war expenditure, making a total of 1012 millions since the outbreak of war. For the first seventeen days of July the expenditure was £54,190,000. The expenditure during the current year to the 17th was -'5Ol millions, whereof £241,693,000 was for |the Army and Navy, while loans to the Dominions and the Allies amounted to iroughly forty-four millions. The balanee was expended on food supplies and other purposes. It is estimated the present vote will last till the end of August.

Mr Asquith intimated that Parliament would reassemble in the middle of September. OFFICIAL NEWS.

The High Commissioner reports:London, July 20 (5.45 a.m.)

An Italian naval communique announces that the cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi was sunk by an Austrian submarine in the Adriatic. Most of the crew were saved.

The Orduna, outrage ha.s seriously affected American relations with German v.

The Welsh miners .strike is still unsettled. The Cabinet has intervened, and the prospect is brighter. Mr Lloyd George, accompanied by Pvimeiman and Mr Henderson, conferred with the men's representatives at Cardiff on Monday night.

THE COAL BILL.

SECURINC. ABNORMAL PRICES.

London, July 20. In the House of Commons the Coal Rill was read a second time.

Mr Runciman stated that owing to the enlistment of one out of evciy five miners, the output for the January to June period of 1915 was 127-} million tons, wheras for the same ■period in 1911 it was 1-12 million tons. The Bill, he said, was a rough and ready method of preventing abnormal prices. The average extra cost, in consequence of war bonuses, would be between ninepence and one shilling. The rise in the price of coil represented about twenty millons for the year. The Bill would not preclude the Chancellor of the Exchequer laying hands oh the war profits of any industry. He had not discovered a coal riii": among London retail m-s. who had permitted him to examine their books and had agreed to a maximum price for the summer, and were prepared to make a similar arrangement for the winter *.t was therefore unfair to fix arbitrarily i standard price. He hoped the South Wales settlement would be. stable and peaceful ; every other coalfield had agreed to the .arrangements made for war.

Sir A. B. Markham urged Mr Runciman to fix a maximum retail price, otherwise the middlemen would fleece the poor. SOUTH WALES' STRIKE.

Mr Lloyd George had au enthusiastic welcome at Newport, where the Cabinet members immediately conferred with the miners' executive.

At the Newport conference Mr Lloyd George pointed out the extreme gravity of the situation, and the effect of the strike upon the Continent. No Government could possibly allpw a continuance of a conflict which imperilled the chances of victory. The conference did not arrive at a decision and adjourned until ten o'clock to-day. Mr Lloyd George will meet the owners at noon.

The older men in South Wales regret the strike, almost to a man. Many are dejected and shamefaced, feeling the odious position in which they are placed, but they declare that unless they get their rights now their smaller demands after peace is declared will enable the employers to treat them worse. Even the most of the men admit they are sorry they struck, but add that they will not give in now. The belief that the companies are making fabulous fortunes is universal, though there is no evidence of the fact. The moving spirits are a little band of Syndicalists, who are out to wreck society, but fear to put their views to the test of a general ballot. The general impression is that Mr Lloyd George will find a way of making easy the retreat of the minors from an impossible position. The Manchester Guardian suggests national control of all collieries, or those on the South Wales end only. which will terminate automatically after the war, the owners meanwhile to enjoy incomes based on the average profits of the prosperous years ! preceding the war; also salaries if they manage their own pits. Tin 1 (workmen must then accept compulsion as public servants, knowing that the profits were going to the country. It was impossible to treat a man working for a private employer as a transgressor of public law when he withholds his labor. THE STRIKE SETTLED. I The High Commissioner reports.— London, .July 20, ■ (i. lo p.m.) / The miner*' strike is settled.