December 8, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1117

Freight business is still limited materially by
tonnage scarcity, and the shortage of wagons is
interfering with full-time working in a number of
collieries.

The Miners’ Federation, at a conference last week,
recommended the districts to adopt the principle of
local joint committees for dealing with absenteeism,
the committees to have power to fine offenders. It
was agreed to defer any discussion on the position
in South Wales until the Board of Trade Order is
more clearly defined.

The Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board met
in Glasgow on Monday to consider the further
miners’ claim for an advance of Is. per day. Lord
Strathclyde presided as neutral chairman. Mr. R.
Smillie stated the men’s case, and Mr. A. Nimmo
replied for the employers. It was found necessary
to investigate certain figures submitted by the
owners as to the increased cost of production, and
the Board adjourned.

Although work in the Australian coal mines was
being resumed on Monday, it is impossible to provide
coal before Christmas for any but industries indis-
pensable to the conduct of the war.

A general meeting of the Mining Institute of
Scotland will be held in the Royal Technical College,
George-street, Glasgow, to-morrow (Saturday),
commencing at 3 p.m. Mr. D. M. Mowat will read
a paper on “ The Summerlee Visual Indicator.”
Two other papers, “ The Sinking and Equipment of
a Circular Shaft,” by Mr. J. Nisbet, and “The
Hurlet Sequence and the Base of the Carboniferous
Limestone Series in Campine and Kilsyth,” by Mr.
D. Ferguson, will be discussed.

At a meeting of the Midland Institute of Mining,
Civil and Mechanical Engineers in Sheffield yesterday
(Thursday) a paper on “ Some Causes of Decay of
Timber in Mines,” by Mr. J. Mitchell, was read.
Another j-tem on the agenda was a discourse by
Prof. W. G. Fearnsides on “Refractory Materials in
the South Yorkshire Coal Field.”

A meeting of the North of England Institute of
Mining and Mechanical Engineers will be held in
the Wood Memorial Hall, Newcastle, to-morrow
(Saturday), commencing at 2 p.m. Mr. W. Best
will contribute a paper entitled “ Description of
Best’s Gauzeless Miner’s Safety Lamp.” Two other
papers will be open for discussion.

A paper on “Solid Fuels,” by Mr. S. G. Martlew
will be presented at a meeting of the Association of
Engineers-in-Charge, at St. Bride’s Institute, Fleet
Street, London, on December 13.

Exports of coal, coke, and manufactured fuel from
the United Kingdom during last month amounted to
3,224,557 tons, the value being £4,253,124. The
quantity exported in the corresponding month of last
year was 3,469,302 tons, and the value' £3,095,832.
In November, 1914, 3,427,099 tons were exported,
valued at £2,271,750.

The aggregate quantities shipped during the first
11 months of the year was 38,375,729 tons, valued
at £47,139,844, as compared with 42,299,908 tons,
valued at £35,665,103, and 57,951,092 tons, valued
at £39,592,981, in the corresponding periods of 1915
and 1914 respectively.

Two thousand miners at Abertillery (Mon.) have
struck work in consequence of a dispute regarding
the rate of timbermen’s pay.

Since the Government announced
Significance the important fact that it had taken
Of the possession of the South Wales coal
South Wales field, the miners’ leaders have been
Settlement, in doubt as to what this really
means. The concession by the Inter-
Departmental Committee of the 15 per cent, increase
demanded by the men has for the moment relieved
the tension, but has not altogether removed a certain
amount of apprehension amongst the miners as to
their precise position under the new order of things
that has arisen. At a special conference of delegates
of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, held this
week, Mr. W. P. Nicholas, the Federation solicitor,
made a statement in respect to the contractual
obligations of the workmen, the possibility of their
being liable to new penalties, and the extent to

which the Conciliation Board agreement was affected
by the change. Clearly the new situation is not well
defined, for the Conference proceeded forthwith to
pass a resolution calling upon the Board of Trade to
explain the full effect of the Order, especially with
regard to the Government control of the collieries.
There are also indications of some nervousness
respecting the presumed temporary character of the
wages increase pending the independent audit of
working costs, which the Board of Trade has
instituted.

Let us first of all consider the position of the
Conciliation Board agreement. We do not know
what views might have been expressed upon this
matter by Mr. Nicholas ; but so far as common
sense is a reasonable guide in matters of law—and
we admit that this faculty cannot always be so
considered—the view expressed last week in this
column, that the Conciliation Board agreement is
defunct, still appears sound. There are at least
two powerful reasons for this conclusion—viz., (1)
the agreement has been broken, and (2) one of the
parties to it no longer exists in a purely legal sense.
As to the breaking of the agreement the miners are
clearly responsible, although they have weakly
endeavoured to show that the owners were the first
to depart from its provisions in the matter of
Clause 28. But it does not signify for the present
argument who broke the agreement. The fact that
it has been broken is enough to destroy its validity.
The second reason is still more cogent. When the
Board of Trade took possession of the coal field the
coal owners were compulsorily withdrawn from the
arena. The present occupiers, if that term can be
used in such a case, can scarcely be considered as
having taken over the owners’ responsibilities under
the Conciliation Board agreement, because they have
themselves ignored the independent chairman,
Lord Justice Pickford, and have effected a settle-
ment after the manner laid down in the Munitions
of War Act. So there appears to be no escape from
the conclusion that the Conciliation Board agreement
of 1915, after a brief but stormy existence, during
which it has seen no less than three independent
chairmen, has now practically ceased to exist.

A more difficult question to answer is the exact
nature of the State control which has been estab-
lished in this area. There have been expressed wild
views about State ownership, and the nationalisation
of the mines upon approved Socialistic principles;
but an undercurrent of more sober judgment carries
the impression that at present there is nothing so
revolutionary in view. The actual wording of the
Board of Trade announcement contains little more
than the fact that action has been taken under a new
regulation made under the Defence of the Realm Act.
Such new regulations have been made from time to
time as occasion required. For example, Regulation
2 (dJ was added as late as June 27 last, with respect to
priority in supply of coal or coke. The powers under
this Act are very large, and during the war any
regulation can be made by His Majesty in Council
for the purpose of securing public safety and the
defence of the realm. It might even have been possible
to deal with this matter without any new regulation
at all, for the Act enables almost any action to be
taken for the proper maintenance of munition
supplies. The new regulation, referred to as 9 (gj is
explicit as to the duties and liabilities of owners,
, agents and managers, and it is expressly laid down
that they are by no means liberated from liability
under the Coal Mines Act. It is also clearly stated
that failure to comply with the regulation constitutes
a summary offence under the Defence of the Realm
Act. No word is said about the position of the men;
but it must be assumed that they, too, are placed in
a similar position.

It is laid down that offences may be tried either
by courts martial or, where of minor importance, by
courts of summary jurisdiction. This, it appears to
us, is the only answer to the question whether the
men are made liable to new penalties by placing
the South Wales coal field under the Defence of the
Realm Act. ‘ Further, by Regulation 42, if any
person attempts to impede, delay or restrict the
production of war material, or any other work
necessary for the successful prosecution of the war,

he is held to be guilty of an offence under the Act.
In a certain sense, of course, this liability under the
Defence of the Realm Act is not new; the whole
nation has been under its provisions ever since the
war. But what appears to be new in this case is the
fact that the coal miners of South Wales are now
virtually civil servants, and as such are directly
responsible to the State for the efficient performance
of their duties. In this sense absenteeism, for
example, would be on precisely the same level as
neglect of duty by a postman or a Home Office clerk.

We come next to the question whether the South
Wales coal field is now a controlled area and
under the Munitions of War Act, 1915. This is a
rather intricate matter which cannot be answered
without more knowledge than is yet available. When
we referred last week to the Munitions Act, we were
discussing solely the wages question, in the settle-
ment of which the Board of Trade is following the
procedure laid down in Schedule 1, but with this
difference, that the composition of the arbitration
tribunal does not conform to the types therein
specified. But it is equally clear that the step to a
controlled establishment is now very small. The
Munitions of War (Amendment) Act, 1916, gives
power to the Minister of Munitions to declare any
establishments belonging ’to, or under the control of
any Government Department, in which munitions
work is carried on, to be controlled establishments
under the Act.

The position seems to be that whereas the
Defence of the Realm Act has no provision for
settling wages and other disputes, and takes no
cognisance of any such matters, the only logical
consequence is for the coal field to be placed under
the Munitions Act, which has the necessary machinery
for this purpose, and this can now be done by a
stroke of the pen.

Last Friday, the Marquess of Crewe,
The Lord President of the Council,
Economics received a deputation from the Joint
Of the Board of Scientific Societies to hear
Coal Trade, arguments in favour of the necessity
for increased Government grants for
scientific and industrial research ; and in his reply he
made an important statement upon the official
attitude towards this important question. The
Government has decided to establish a separate
department of scientific and industrial research for
Great Britain and Ireland, and a considerable sum
of money is to be placed at its disposal, to be used as
a fund for the conduct of researches of national
importance to be carried out upon a co-operative
basis. The money thus allocated will be four or five
times the amount previously spent in this direction,
and it is expected to be largely increased by testa-
mentary and other gifts, and by contributions
through the medium of industrial associations,
including groups of industries particularly interested
in special lines of investigation. The scheme embraces
a wide field, and we cannot do more, at the present
time, than indicate the place which will be taken, under
these provisions, by the coal trade, which, indeed, is
a national industry in its truest and widest sense.

The subject of fuel economy comes within the
purview of the Coal Conservation Committee, which
sits under the presidency of Lord Haldane, and this
body has already agreed upon a series of researches
for the purpose of establishing, upon a scientific
basis, a systematic economy in the use of fuel. The
advisory council has agreed to these proposals, and
this part of the programme will probably be initiated
forthwith. The full statement of the scheme has not
yet been made known, but Lord Crewe indicated that
the research is to begin with a chemical survey of all
the various coal measures in the United Kingdom.
It is also intended to examine and experiment on
coal under various furnace tests, to investigate the
suitability of different kinds of coal for various
practical purposes, and to carry out, so far as can be
judged, a complete survey of coal field economics.
This work has been long demanded by fuel experts
and others interested in the conservation of our
coal supplies. It is not quite clear in what way the
researches are to be put to practical uses, but it is
not necessary, on that account, to withhold sympathy