COAL TRADE CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 205, 27 February 1912, Page 5

COAL TRADE CRISIS.

NATIONALISATION OF COAL MINES. FURTHER LOCK-OUTS THREATENED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, February 25. Mr. Asquith, replying to Mr. Field, a Nationalist member for Dublin, said he was unable to regard favorably the suggestion that the coalfields be nationalised. The executive of the Lancashire and Cheshire miners instructed delegates to Tuesday's conference to refuse to suspend notices'. Mr. Keir Hardie says that only the concession of the men's demands can effect a settlement. The miners were not going to Mr. Lloyd George like the railwaymen did. Sending troops implied that the miners ' were hooligans and /blackguards. The Lord Mayor of London presided at a conference of Mayors of the United Kingdom, all the large towns being represented. The meeting passed a resolution that the claims of the community outweighed any conceivable difference dividing the negotiators. Several speakers urged that the rights of the Nation as a third party should be heard. The Electric Lighting Company at Southwark has stored up thousands of tons of coal in view of a possible strike. This caused a wall to collapse, and the coal fell into an alley where children svere playing, two being killed. An increasing number of large firms have notified their intention to suspend work in the event of a strike, including the- London, Chatham and Dover railway works tit Ashford, the North-Westcrn works at Crowe, the Glasgow Steel Works, employing ten thousand hands, and the Welsh tinplate manufacturers, eraplojing thirty thousand. GERMAN MINERS' DEMANDS. ■ SYMPATHETIC STRIKE DEPRECATED. Received 26, 9.25 p.m. Berlin, February 26. Twenty meetings, covering 370,000 miners on the. Ruhr coalfield, resolved that the increase of wages was insufficient to compensate for the increased cost of living. They have authorised their leaders to take the necessary steps ti> secure the concessions demanded.

A manifesto issued by Christian miners deprecates a sympathetic strike, both on political and national grounds. They allege that British miners, by their ambiguous attitude in connection with the German strike of 1905, were not deserving of any support, as they seized every opportunity to capture markets, thus forcing the Germans to work short time when they resumed. Christian miners number 83,000.

BRIGHTER PROSPECTS. OWNERS MAY AGREE TO MINIMUM WAGE. Received 20, 11.25 p.m. London, February 26. The newspapers record brighter prospects in connection with the mining trouble. There is a likelihood of the South Wales, Scotch, Durham and Northumberland owners falling into line with the Federated Miners and recognising the minimum wage. There is much comment over the four days' negotiations that have been wasted, but it is explained as an excuse that the Miners' Federation told Mr. Asquith on Thursday that they were not empowered to confer until they had consulted the national conference. Meetings were held on Saturday and Sunday in order to elect delegates to confer on Tuesday, when Mr. Asquith is expected to address the conference. A leading Derbyshire owner states that the last chance of averting the strike is for Mr. Asquith on Tuesday to ask the miners to postpone their notices and to ask the owners to deal with abnormal places immediately, leaving the question of the minimum .wage to be negotiated afterwards. There is a movement against the strike among the Warwickshire miners, and another ballot will be taken this week. EFFECTS IN FRANCE. Pans, February 25. The strike threatens to paralyse many industries which largely rely on English imports.