CHAOS GROWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1921, Page 5

CHAOS GROWS.

DEADLOCK IN BRITAIN.

MILLIONS OF MEN IDLE. THREAT TO SHIPPING. FEAR OF A HOLD-UP. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received May 7, 5.5 p.m. London, May 7* The industrial chaos in Britain is increasing daily. Five million are now idle or on half wages, representing fifteen millions men, women and children. They are not buying clothes or other goods and a gradual paralysis of trade is coming on.

The miners show no signs of giving way on the principle of a national pool, which mining association now announce fiiey will not even discuss, as it means Certain disaster to the industry. The latest trouble is a threatened hold-up of British shipping. The Transport Federatiqh is backing up 30,000 stewards and cooks, who refuse to accept 50s a month reduction, which sailors and firemen have already agreed to accept. The situation is complicated by the fact that the sailors and firemen are also members of the Transport Federation. The fifty shillings is part of the war bonus granted last year. The Federation threaten to stop loading or discharging vessels if black-leg cooks and stewards are introduced.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.

REFUSAL TO SHIR COAL.

COMBINED ACTION TAKEN.

TRANSPORTERS AND RAILWAYMEN.

Received May 8, 5.5 p.m. London, May 7.

The Transport Workers’ Federation has issued a joint manifesto with the National Union of Railwaymen calling on their members to refuse to handle or unload foreign coal imported into Britain, of which large quantities are arriving next week. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. London, May 6.

For a fortnight the dock laborers at Glasgow have declined to handle cargoes of Welsh coal. When a start was made to-day with non-union labor under police and military protection a general strike was declared and the docks were rendered idle. The Manchester dockers have resolved that no vessel bringing coal from foreign ports will be discharged. The police at Rhondda Valley dispersed miners demonstrating against officers working the pumps. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. NO EARLY SETTLEMENT. SPEECH BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE. AN APPEAL TO THE NATION. Received May 8, 11.45 p.m. London. May 8. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking at MaidStone, devoted the greater part of his speech to the coal strike, offering no hope of an early settlement. He said that when the coal prices were high the miners enjoyed their share of the luck, to which they were entitled, but now the mines were losing, the export prices having fallen more than fifty per cent, in three months, and under the latest Government offer they must continue to lose. “Americans are cutting us out of the coal markets,” said the Premier, “and it is impossible' to raise the local price in order to maintain an artificial rate of miners’ wages, because that would entail lose 'in our manufacturing trade, eventually resulting in the closing down of mines. In the first quarter this year, the mines lost £25,000,000. That cannot continue, and the Government is forced to insist that the industry be self-supporting.” Proceeding, the Premier eaid: “The miners’ demand for a national pool to prevent wages being reduced meant the profitable mines paying towards the unprofitable. This *is* a far-reaching principle. Where is it going to end? If adopted with mines, why not in other industries, such as the profitable Lancashore and Yorkshire factories paying the wages of unprofitable factories in other counties? Why not the Daily Mail paying the Daily Herald’s losses? (Laughter.)

“The country is anxious to pay the miners the highest wages the industry can bear, and the Government is prepared to consider any practical settlement proposal based on permanent and not on patched lines. This is second mine stoppage in six months, and the fourth threatened in the past two years British industries cannot stand these heart shocks. I am told every day we are seeking to starve miners into surrender. I am afraid it is the other way. The Miners’ Federation is seeking to starve the whole nation into a disastrous settlement of the strike, inflicting untold injury on thousands of people not connected with mining, but I must appeal here and now to the nation to endure with ’the patient and stubborn courage which piloted it through worse trouble.”—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn. GOVERNMENT BLAMED. Received May 8, 11.45 p.m. London, May 8. Mr. Arthur Henderson, the wellknown Labor leader, writing in the Sunday Express, blames the Government for describing the coal dispute as a political matter, thereby making a settlement under the Industrial Disputes Act impossible. Mr. Henderson expresses the opinion that if the Government, recognising the need for l>elping the industry over the abnormal period, gave a definite pledge that until permanent wage regulation machinery acceptable to both sides was established, it would undertake to sustain wages at the cost of living level, work could ‘'be Cable Assn.