THE COAL STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 223, 19 March 1912, Page 5

THE COAL STRIKE

' MIXERS ANXIOUS TO RESUME. CLECKHEATON COLLIERIES RE-OPEN. SHIPBUILDERS IDLE. TROUBLE OVER NON-UNIONISTS. By Cable—Press Aesociatioi—C«pyrifkt. London, March 17. The first week's strike pay of men connected with the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation amounted to £30,000. Many strikers in North Wales, at Doncaster and Chesterfield, and in several districts of Scotland, are anxious to "resume work. The older miners in South Wales are chafing at inactivity and short rations. Thirteen thousand men at Els wick shipbuilding yards have received a week's notice. The Low Moor Coal and Iron Company at Cleckheaton is reopening its collieries on Tuesday on the basis of the payment of whatever wages Parliament fixes. The bulk of their colliers are willing to resume. The miners' leaders have permitted the restarting of the pumps in order to obviate the danger of flooding in south Staffordshire mines. Cabinet will discuss the details of the Bill. The Premier had an auditnee lasting half an hour with the King. At the Premier's invitation the coal owners and miners appointed representatives to confer with the Government over the preparation of the Bill. Many mineowners ask for a clause enabling them to vary or cancel existing contracts which otherwise would be unremunerative or ruinous owing to the increased cost of tha output under the Minimum Bill. Fierce debates in Parliament are expected. Huntly & Palmer have intimated that if the strike is prolonged they intend to turn their biscuit factory into a bread factory in order to keep their hands going as long as possible. A thousand travellers for Manchester firms are temporarily idle. The strikers and police came into conflict at Rosehall pits, Lanarkshire, where two hundred non-unionists were working. A sergeant was badly injured. Ten arrests were made, including four Poles. Mr. Nicholson, Unionist M.P. for Hampshire, speaking at Petersfield, said that if the Bill were carried it would be the prelude to every trade union demanding a similar benefit. Mr. Straker, secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Union, speaking in Northumberland, said the Government's attitude was the beginning of the recognition of the minimum wage in all industrits. ENORMOUS LOSS OF WAGES. COALOWXERS AXD CONTRACTS. LABOUR PARTY AXD TRADES UNIONISM.

Received March 18, 9.40 p.m. * London, March 18. •1,342,600 men are idle and the loss of wages is estimated at £5,643,000. Welsh coalowners have circularised the members of the House of Commons pointing out that they have forward contracts for 25,000,000 tons of coal made on the basis of present wages. Granting the miners' demands, they say, would lead to a reduction of 30 to 50 per cent. «f the output, and would close some large collieries which were only earning small profits. Mr. Hartshorn, speaking at Maesteg, said that no Bill would be acceptable to the miners if it deprives them of the right to strike. G. Roberts, member of the House of Commons for Sheffield, said that the Labour Party must watch the Bill from the standpoint of the general trade onion movement, and not allow a national crisis to be utilised to deal a blow, direct or indirect, at the general activities of trades union organisation. Dockers at Middlesborough refused to discharge a cargo of German coal for the municipal gasworks. Several pits near Swansea are flooded owing to the suspension of pumping.

GERMAN FREIGHTS INCREASED. Received March 18, 11.40 p.m. Berlin, March 18. A conference of Bremen and Hamburg\ shipping interests has increased freights to distant ports 10 per cent., and to kome ports 15 per cent., until coal is again available, when normal prices will be resumed. SYNDICALISTS FOMENTING STRIKES WOULD THE SOLDIERS SHOOT? Received March 18, 11.40 p.m. London, March 18. Since the transport workers' strike the membership of the union has rapidly increased, and a quarter million are now enrolled. The syndicalist element are fomenting a general strike for the minimum wage. W. Thorne, Labour member for West Ham. speaking at Blackfriars, said that if the coal strike continued for six weeks all trade would be bankrupt. Mr. Hall, a Labour member, at Rotherham said the miners would not resume until the Bill was passed, and then only for a month pending the fixing of district figures. Victor Grayson, speaking at Crewe, said he had received hundreds of letters from soldier? declaring that they would refuse to shoot if ordered. Tom Mann, at Birmingham, said that unless the Government was prepared to compel mine-owners to grant the mini mum wage he would urge all railwayman and transport workers to strike.