March 5, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

495

TRADE AND THE WAR.

The Enlistment of Miners Committee : Corrected Terms of
Reference—Ramifications of a London Coal Firm—The
Government's Coal Enquiry — Trading with Enemy :
Increased Vigilance—United States Export Coal Trade—
Pre-War Contracts—Deputation to the Board of Trade.

In the House of Commons on Monday, the Home Secre-
tary made an important announcement in regard to the
committee recently appointed to consider the existing
conditions in the coalmining industry. Answering Mr.
Stephen Walsh, he said he was anxious to remove the
impression that' coal miners had been backward in joining
the Forces, and that the main object, of the committee was
to find a remedy. He said : “ It is hardly necessary for me
to inform the House that the coal miners made a ready and
generous response to their country’s call in the present
emergency, and I have no doubt that when the recruiting
figures are published the mining industry will occupy a
very high place on the list. Indeed, it is because the
enlistment in some districts has been so great that it has
become necessary to consider what steps should be taken to
ensure the supply of coal necessary for the public service,
and it will be the business of the committee to enquire into
the whole position.” He added that with the concurrence
of the committee the terms of reference had been amended
to remove the misapprehension.

In the amended form the terms of reference to the Coal
Mining Production Committee now read :—“ To enquire
into the conditions prevailing in the coal mining industry
with a view to promoting such organisation of work and
such co-operation between employers and workmen as,
having regard to the large number of miners who are
enlisting for military and naval service, will secure the
necessary production of coal during the war.”

On Monday in the House of Commons Mr. William Thorne
asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he was
aware that Messrs. F. B. Cameron and Company trade
under the following names : The Colliery Owners'’ Associa-
tion, the Co-operative Coal Company, the Newcastle Colliery
Owners, the Great Northern Coal Company, the Midland
Coal Company, and the Great Western Coal Company; if he
was aware that, in consequence of the coal which was being
delivered in London about 12s. per ton over and above the
price of February 1914, gas companies, factory owners,
corporations, and private consumers of coal were paying an
extra rate of about <£154,000 per week; if he was aware
that a number of generating stations in London were
finding a difficulty to obtain coal for generating purposes ;
and if he intended taking any action in the matter ? In
reply Mr. Kunciman said he understood that F. B. Cameron
and Company Limited owned a controlling interest in the
Newcastle Colliery Owners Limited. The other companies
named did not appear to be registered under the Companies
Acts, and he had no information with regard to them. He
was not in a position to say exactly how much more in the
aggregate was being paid for coal at the present moment
by the various classes of consumers mentioned as compared
with a year ago. As regards coal for gas and electricity
undertakings, the Government had arranged for the
interned enemy steamers in the United Kingdom to carry
coal to London largely for the use of undertakings of this
kind and of other public utility bodies. Mr. Watt asked
the Prime Minister whether the committee set up to
consider the coal question would have power by their remit
to consider the advisability of stopping all export of coal
during the war ; and, if not, would the Government
consider this point, in view of the present price of coal both
for domestic and manufacturing consumption, and of the
shortage of shipping tonnage ? Mr. Kunciman, who replied,
said there was nothing in the terms of reference to the
Ketail Coal Prices Committee which would preclude
them from considering this point, if and in so far as
it appeared to them to bear on the subject of their enquiry.
Mr. Neville asked whether he was aware that coal
freights from the Tyne to London had recently been raised
to 17s. 6d. per ton; and whether, in making the present
arrangement of intrusting the management of and the
fixing of freights for the 34 interned German steamers
recently made available for coasting traffic to a committee
of shipowners interested in maintaining freights, any steps
were taken to prevent such an arrangement having the
effect of keeping up and raising freights on foodstuffs and
coal required by the population of London ? Mr. Kunciman
said no such rate of freight as that mentioned had been
paid in respect of any interned steamer, nor was it true
that the management of and fixing of freights for these
steamers had been entrusted, as alleged in the question, to
a committee of shipowners interested in maintaining
freights.

The Special Committee appointed by the Government to
consider the rise in the retail price of coal has continued
its meetings this week, and has now practically completed
the evidence from the producers and retailers, leaving the
witnesses from the distributing trade still to be examined.
The Board of Trade has supplied statistics about the
available supply of coal and the number of men engaged in
the industry. The Kail way Executive Committee has
furnished information about wagons and the transport of
coal generally. London merchants have given their
opinions, and the consumers have also been heard.

The Morning Post says it has been matter of remark that
on the numerous committees of enquiry recently set up by
the Government care has been taken apparently to ensure
representation of the Labour party, while Unionist and
Ministerial members have been excluded. The official
explanation is that the omission is due to oversight, and it
is promised that where practicable the two parties shall be
represented on any new committees that may be set up.
As an earnest of the future, Mr. Boyton and Mr. Kowlands
have been added to the body which is enquiring into the
increased prices of coal.

Sir Charles Bine Kenshaw, presiding at the annual
meeting of the Caledonian Kail way Company in Glasgow
last week, said it had been found necessary, owing to the
coal supply, to reduce the train service in England and
Scotland to some extent, and it was probable that further
reductions would be necessary. He thought the time had
come when the Government should be urged to limit the
export of coal to countries not engaged in this war. The
shortness of supply and the high prices were a serious
burden on the industries of the country. He thought
some action on the part of the Government was urgent.

A Danish commission, appointed for the purpose of
regulating prices, is conducting an official enquiry into coal
supplies, of which, it is believed, Denmark may be short if
the British exports are stopped.

The Board of Trade have drawn the attention of ship owners
and charterers that it is incumbent upon them to take
every precaution to prevent goods from being carried in
their ships to or from neutral countries which are of enemy
origin or which may ultimately reach an enemy country.
The Board of Trade have reason to fear that in some
instances there have been cases of business laxity, and that
goods have been carried to or from neutral countries, which
proper enquiry would have shown respectively to have been
intended for enemy consumption or to have been of enemy
origin. Any such laxity or want of proper enquiry renders
owners or charterers liable to prosecution under the Trading
with the Enemy Acts, the penalties imposable under which
may be either fine or imprisonment, or both, and if the
conviction is under indictment even penal servitude, with
forfeiture of the goods in either case.

The New York Federal Grand Jury, which has been
investigating the violation of Customs laws in the furnishing
of supplies for German cruisers in the Atlantic, has
returned an indictment against the Hamburg-Amerika Line.
Two indictments were found against the Hamburg-Amerika
Line. The individuals indicted include Dr. Karl Bunz,
who signed an alleged agreement with the owners of the
steamers “ Sommerstad ” and “ Fram ” ; Kotter, the superin-
tendent of the Hamburg-Amerika Line; Poppenhause,
supercargo of the steamship“ Berivid ” ; Seffner, supercargo
of the steamship “Lorenzo” ; all of which steamers sailed
from New York loaded with coal alleged to bcT for German
cruisers. All four defendants were admitted to bail in the
sum of 5,000 dols. each.

The American export coal trade shows no move towards
greater activity. Only a few fixtures have been made
recently, and exports in January from the different loading
ports on the Eastern seaboard exhibit a decline as compared
with the previous year. Thus, exports from the three
Hampton Koads ports amounted to only 117,607 tons, as
against 218,717 tons ; these figures, however, do not include
bunkers, the shipment of which has increased to some
extent. Prices at Hampton Koads for prompt loading rule
about 2’85 dols for New Kiver or Pocohontas. . A cablegram
from Henry P. Fletcher, American minister at Santiago,
Chile, under date of February 2, reads : “ Contracts for coal
given to Chilean mines at 6'70 dols. United States gold per
ton at Valparaiso; bids now closed. Three recent careful
and detailed examinations looking to Government contracts
by American representatives, who were assisted by embassy,
severally resulted in conclusion that market under present
conditions is practically closed to American coal.” It is
learned that the contract of one of the American railroads
for the delivery of about 30,000 tons of coal on the west
coast of Mexico, where their line reaches, has been awarded
to an Australian firm. Atlantic seaboard shippers who
tried to secure this business found that the vessel owners
wanted a rate of 6 dols. per ton for transportation through
the Panama Canal, whereas the Australian shippers are
said to have named a price of 6’50 dols. per ton delivered at
the railroad piers on the west coast of Mexico. It may be
recalled that 6 dols. per ton was about a normal rate of trans-
portation of coal from the Atlantic to the Pacific before the
days of the Panama Canal, some foreign vessels naming at
times a rate running about 4’50 dols. It is expected,
however, that a considerable weight of new business in
South America will go to the States, so soon as the supply
of tonnage becomes more plentiful.

At a meeting of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce on
Wednesday, it was announced that on Wednesday next a
conference of coal exporters would be held at York to con-
sider the question of pre-war contracts, a critical point in
which is that shipments must be resumed after the war.
The aim of the conference will be to try and arrive at a
unanimous decision as to the time for resuming shipments
after the war.

The President of the Board of Trade on Wednesday
received a deputation representing the leading electrical
and gas undertakings of the kingdom with reference to
short deliveries of coal to works in fulfilment of contracts.
The proceedings were conducted in private. Bailie Irwin,
Glasgow, presented the case for the Scottish corporations,
and dealt chiefly with the short supply of men and the
difficulty in obtaining the transport of coal. He also
suggested the desirability of putting into operation
section 4 of the Coal Mines Kegulation Act of 1908, the
effect of which would suspend the limitation of an eight-
hour day, and thus enable an increased output to be made.
Several gas corporations, he pointed out, were at present
using up their reserve stock because they could not get
sufficient deliveries of coal. Aiderman H. K. Barge, of
Poplar, chairman of the Metropolitan Conferences of
Municipal Electrical Authorities, asked that as many
wagons as possible should be freed for the use of the
metropolitan electrical undertakings and gas companies.
They wanted the Government to step in and organise, on a
better scale than was at present the case, the goods traffic
on the railways of the United Kingdom. Sir Corbett
Woodall, chairman of the Gas Light and Coke Company,
strongly urged the need of prompt Government action, not
only on behalf of the thousands of poor people who were
dependant upon the company he represented for heat and
light, but also because of the valuable residual products
which were utilised for war material. Mr. Walter
Kunciman at the close informed the deputation that he
would have pleasure in laying their views before the
Government, and assured them that they would receive the
fullest and most careful consideration.

The Comptroller-General of Patents (Mr. Temple Franks),
sitting with Sir Cornelius Bolton as an advisory tribunal to
the Board of Trade concerning the working1 of the German-
owned patents during the war, at the Patents Office, on
Thursday, the 25th ult., heard an application by the
Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company Limited, of
Warrington, for licences in respect of three patents for a
blastfurnace charging' apparatus, held by the Pohlig Com-
pany of Cologne. The Lilleshall Company, of Shropshire,
entered notice of a similar application concerning the same
group of patents.—Mr. H. A. Gill, representing the Pearson
and Knowles Company, said his clients had erected the
.hoists for Messrs. Lysaghts Limited, and for the Partington
Iron and Steel Company Limited, of Partington. The,
German patentees had erected them* at'Barrow. Applicants

had done all the principal constructional works in this
country so far, except the machinery that had been erected
for the Barrow firm. In one case the licences obtained
from the patentees provided for the payment of <£150
royalty in respect to each of two hoists, and in another case
for the payment of <£350 royalty in respect of two each of
three hoists. The latter work was part of a very large
piece of construction, and it was worth the while of the
applicants, said Mr. Gill, to have a licence under any
consideration rather than to alter their plans. It was
therefore regarded that the offer of a royalty of £150 would
be reasonable.—Mr. Thomas Atherton, of the applicant
firm, gave evidence, and replying to Sir G. Croydon Marks,
M.P., appearing for the patentee, said he had not been
aware that other firms were paying a royalty of £250 in
respect of the patents.—Sir George Marks said if applicants
would consent to a <£250 royalty now his clients would
acquiesce in the royalty remaining the same after the war.
—Mr. Atherton accepted the offer, and the case then
terminated, the Comptroller-General expressing the opinion
that it was eminently desirable that a licence should be
granted.

The home production of coal being only 600/700,000 tons
per annum, Italy is mainly dependent on foreign supplies.
These are mostly obtained from Great Britain, the imports
from that source in 1913 being, coal 9’8 million tons, coke
71,000 tons, and briquettes 253,000 tons, Germany coming
a bad second with, coal 892,000 tons, coke 183,000 tons, and
briquettes 133,000 tons. Since the outbreak of war these
supplies have been considerably restricted, the shipments
from England between August and December last having
fallen, from 3,974,000 tons in the corresponding period of
1913, to 3,210,000 tons, a deficit of 764,000 tons, whilst for
the whole year the decline amounted to 1,022,000 tons, or
about 20 per cent. In the same periods the supplies from
Germany fell from 446,000 tons to 122,000 tons (deficit
324,000 tons), and from 1,073,000 tons to 819,000 tons
(deficit 254,000 tons), respectively. The total shortage for
the year thus exceeded 1J million tons.

COLLIERY ACCIDENTS.

Chesterton.

Twelve lives were lost in a fire which broke out at the
New Hem Heath Colliery, Chesterton, Staffs., on Thursday,
afternoon, the 25th ult. The pit, which belongs to Messrs.
Hodgkinson Brothers, is a small one employing about 120
workmen, and contains both ironstone and coal, though it is
worked chiefly for the former. At the time of the accident,
about 3.30 p.m., 21 men were engaged in the Ked mine seam
loading ironstone, which had been got during the day. The
mine is regarded as a particularly safe place, and naked
lights were used.

The names of the twelve unfortunate men are :—Claude
Hodgkinson (40), married, one of the proprietors; Ernest
Brown (32), married, engineman; Joseph Cornwall (14),
pump attendant; Jacob Copnall (42), married; Walter
Griffiths (25); Levi McCready (27), married; George
Skidmore (43), married, fireman; John Kennedy (45),
married; Wm. Hyde (35), married; James Brown (42),
married; Albert Poole (34) ; Kobert McCready (this man
was rescued alive, but died in the infirmary).

Mr. Arthur Hassam, on behalf of the firm, made the
following statement “ By some means or other the fire
originated in the compressed air hauling engine-house and
burnt fiercely, igniting the supporting timber in proximity
to the engine-house, ultimately causing a very heavy
fall of roof across the top of the main engine dip and
completely blocking up the entrance. Ingress was first
obtained to the imprisoned men by a somewhat circuitous
route through the Ked Shag seam, and all the men
whose lives have been saved were rescued by that means.
. Continuous efforts were made to work a way through the
fall at the top of the dip, which were successful on Friday
evening. Since then the brigades working for the recovery
of the bodies have entered into the workings by means of
the engine dip. The fire, after the first fierce conflagration,
was got under control, although it is not yet extinguished.
It is hoped that the efforts which are being made will soon
be successful.”

When the occurrence became known rescue brigades were
summoned from the North Staffordshire central rescue
station at Berryhill Colliery, Birchenwood Colliery (Kids-
grove), Midland Coal, Coke and Iron Company (Apedale),
Silverdale, Talk-o’-th’-Hill, Florence, Shelton Iron, Steel
and Coal Company, and Parkhouse collieries, and these,
together with colliery officials, entered upon rescue work
as speedily as possible. All the bodies have now been
recovered. Amongst those who have been in the mine
• directing and assisting in operations are Mr. W. J. Hassam,
colliery manager; Mr. Arthur Hassam, consulting engineer,
Newcastle ; Mr. A. M. Henshaw, managing director, Talk-
o’-th’-Hill Colliery; Mr. J. K. L. Allott, manager of
the Birchenwood Colliery, Kidsgrove ; Mr. W. Barber,
Midland Company’s Collieries, Apedale ; Mr. McGowan,
Parkhouse Colliery, Chesterton ; Mr. Mawson, Brymbo
Steel Company, Chesterton; together with Mr. W. Saint,
H.M. senior inspector of mines and Mr. T. H. Bull,
assistant inspector of mines. Conspicuous gallantry was
shown by Harry Bickerton, the day overman in the Ked
Mine seam. He descended the pit, fighting his way
through the smoke, and directed several of the survivors to
safety. Engineman Brown appears to have lost his life
trying to warn his fellow men. He entered the danger zone
without any breathing apparatus, never to return alive.
This happened, of course, before the arrival of the rescue
brigades. It is not yet known how the conflagration
originated, but a theory is in circulation that a paraffin
lamp was accidentally overturned in the engine-house,
setting fire to some cotton waste, and being near the fan
the draught would quickly carry the flames in all directions.

The North Staffordshire coroner, Mr. Hugh Adams,
opened the enquiry at Chesterton, on Monday, into the
deaths of the 12 victims. The coroner said it was a terrible
thing that in so short a period after the disaster at the
Minnie pit, Halmerend, they should have to hold an enquiry
into another calamity. The fire appeared to have originated
in the engine-house at the top of the dip, about 40 yds.
from the bottom of the pit, and the cause of death was
probably carbon monoxide poisoning. He should adjourn
the inquest until Tuesday, March 9, and in the meantime
blood tests would 'be taken by a medical man to ascertain,
the cause of death.