December 6, 1918.

the: colliery guardian.

1193

shire and the Midlands is practically nominal,
through demand exceeding supply. All descriptions
are wanted in South Wales, and the increased output
of about 1,000,000 tons per week is much below
requirements. Prices there are unchanged. Most
descriptions of fuel are still very scarce in Scotland.

Chartering in Newcastle is still practically con-
fined to Swedish destinations. Rates are fairly well
maintained. Cardiff docks are congested with ton-
nage, almost all on Allied account. Few fixtures
are reported.

The Shipping Controller is preparing a revised
schedule of rates, which will be put into operation
at an early date.

The Mission Francaise des Charbons, London,
announces reduced freight rates for steamers under
400 tons, sailing vessels and barges carrying coal to
France.

The Coal Controller has issued figures which show
a further serious falling off in the estimated output
of coal during the first 40 weeks of this year com-
pared with the output during the corresponding
period of last year. The net shortage is nearly 16|
million tons, or about 8'4 per cent.

Mr. Churchill, at Dundee, stated that the Govern-
ment had decided on the nationalisation of railways.

South Wales miners accepted the decision of the
Miners’ Federation of Great Britain that the surface-
men’s eight and a-half hours day should come into
■operation in the new year.

At a meeting of the Association of Engineers-in-
Charge, at St. Bride’s Institute, London, E.C., on
December*! 1, commencing at 7.30 p.m., a paper on
il The Winning and Transport of Fuel,” by Mr. J. H.
Anderson will be read.

A paper (open for discussion) on “ The Training
of Mining Engineers,” by Prof. F. W. Hardwick,
will be read at a meeting of the North Staffordshire
Institute of Mining Engineers in the Central School
of Science and Technology, Stoke-on-Trent, on
December 9, commencing at 5 p.m.

The election manifesto issued last

The Labour week by the Labour Party must
Manifesto, be considered in its proper propor-
tion. It is not the considered policy
of the party, as a whole, so much as a statement by
an executive which includes a large proportion of
extremists who have certainly during the war been
out of touch with the real spirit of Labour in this
country. It misses entirely the spirit of the nation
and the gravity of the task by which the Allies are
confronted. It raises questions which lie far outside
the great problems of rconstruction, and, from the
point of view of a practical policy, it reflects too
strongly the misguided judgment of those who but
lately were clamouring for a surrender to the enemy
under the thin disguise of a plea for peace by
negotiation. Although, however, we should have
welcomed a more robust and helpful attitude, we do
not quarrel with all the sentiments expressed in this
document. The country will willingly acquiesce in
the view that Labour can claim no mean share in the
achievement of victory, and we believe that general
approval will be accorded to that earlier statement of
war aims, which was undoubtedly useful at the time in
convincing our opponents that the nation was solidly
united in its determination to carry the war to a
successful conclusion. But the admirable impression
which would otherwise have been conveyed by the
opening paragraph of the manifesto is marred by a
speedy relapse into an impossible idealism, for it
demands as an essential part of any Peace treaty
“an International Labour Charter incorporated in
the very structure of a League of Free Peoples.”
This somewhat vague aspiration appears to mean
nothing less than an immediate and complete recon-
ciliation with our enemies, without even the
preliminary requisite of a change of heart. This we
believe to be a wrong attitude to take at a time when
all available evidence goes to show that the German
nation is still a long way from any spirit of contrition
for the abominable crimes it has committed. Can it
be that the Labour Party executive is hoodwinked
by the hypocrisy of the Sole and Deissmann type,
as were some of its members by the earlier blandish-
ments of the Scheidemann clique? We trace in this
inopportune hankering after fraternisation with an
unrepentant people the hand of their misguided
secretary, Mr. Henderson, and we refuse to believe
that the bulk of the Labour Party would consent to
such a course until full reparation has been made for
the foul outrages inflicted not only upon their
brothers in arms, but upon almost every man, woman
and child who crossed the enemy’s path.

The Labour Party manifesto fearlessly invades the
region of high politics, forgetful of the very feeble
insight lately shown by the advocates of a peace by
understanding. It demands the immediate with-
drawal of the Allied forces in Russia, and presumably
the abandonment of a helpless population to the
awful tyrannies of unrestrained Bolshevism.
Frankly, we do not find it easy to associate this
policy, upon humanitarian grounds, with any sort of
peace of reconciliation. Is it to propitiate Germany
that the Labour executive desires the Allied forces
to leave Russia to the fate which German intrigue

has prepared for that hapless country ? We do not
pretend either to answer this question, or to fathom
the minds of those whose professed concern for
humanity seems so difficult to reconcile with an
unblushing eagerness to forget and forgive.

We will pass over those sections of the manifesto
which appeal for home rule for Ireland and India,
the abolition of conscription, land for the workers,
abolition of war-time restrictions, and better housing
for the people. The Labour Party does not
monopolise the desire for social amelioration,
wherever it is practicable; and it is not upon such a
platform that this election will be won But even
these generally-acceptable principles are interspersed
with vague and meaningless phrases which can only
appeal to unpractical minds. It hints at sinister
political influences dominating the Press as if
sinister influences do not also dominate the Labour
manifesto. It calls for an increased yield from the
land, not by subsidies but by scientific methods.
This last we should all like to see, and perhaps the
Labour Party will reveal some speedy way by which
it can be accomplished. Scientific agriculture, how-
ever, cannot be inaugurated by a wave of the
magician’s wand. It is a matter of experience and
education, and depends not only on the farmer, but
on the chemist, the botanist and engineer. A hint
is thrown out that land nationalisation would cure
all existing evils of land cultivation; but this
sentiment, however well meant it may be, contributes
nothing to the needs of the moment.

This is not the time for experimental legisla-
tion designed to produce sectional cleavage and
antagonism when unity of effort is so sorely needed
for the great work of reconstruction that lies before
the country. However much the country may agree
with certain of the principles set forth in this
manifesto, we think the moment is inopportune for
raising many of the issues it contains. There is a
better way of securing such objects as the removal
of the menace of unemployment,' limitation of
hours of labour, and a minimum wage. That way
lies not in upsetting the whole industrial routine,
but by applying to their bwn countrymen the
principles advocated with regard to the enemy. A
peace of understanding between Labour and Capital
in this country can be had for the asking. It is the
very essence of the Whitley scheme to endeavour to
achieve this result. If the Labour Party is sincere
in its professions of regard for the welfare of the
workers, this is the golden moment for showing
the young democracies springing up throughout
Europe how to secure it. Most of our leading
captains of industry are in sympathy with the legiti-
mate aspirations of the working classes, and are
anxious to forward their attainment. There was
never such an opportunity for an industrial recon-
ciliation such as will not only accomplish these
objects, but at the same time reconstitute the fabric
of national endeavour which has been so greatly
distorted by the strain of a stupendous war. We do
not think the nation will be greatly impressed by an
appeal to British workmen to love the Germans and
hate their fellow countrymen.

There has recently been published a
Seaways Of book entitled Seaways of the Empire
the Empire, written by Mr. A. J. Sargent, and
further described as “ Notes on the
Geography of Transport.” Its importance from our
own point of view lies in the intimate connection
that it shows between the movement of British
shipping and the export of coal. It will be remem-
bered that one of the main recommendations of the
Committee on the Coal Trade after the War was to
the effect that the coal export trade should be speedily
restored to its pre-war condition, and even amplified
if possible. One value of Mr. Sargent’s book is
that it shows precisely what that pre-war condition
was, for he has intentionally ignored the immediate
effects of the war and the temporary disturbance of
the normal flow of seaborne commerce which it has
caused. True, it cannot be assumed that we shall
quickly get back to the normal state; but it is
nevertheless both instructive and useful to have this
record available for the study of the many who have
hitherto failed altogether to grasp what our coal
export trade really me^ns to the welfare of the
nation.

Mr. Sargent opens his subject by a graphic
description of the Canaries, Madeira and the Cape
Verde ports as coaling stations for South Atlantic
traffic, and he discusses the various factors which
control the coal trade of those islands. Thus, in the
year 1912, owing to fierce local competition, best
Welsh coal was selling in the Canaries almost as
cheaply as at Cardiff, with a consequent loss to the
dealers. In 1911, the failure of the maize crop in
Argentina, by diverting ships to other markets,
affected the coaling business at Las Palmas; and in
1913, a coal war on the River Plate, by cheapening
coal there, reduced the sales at St. Vincent. These
things merely go to illustrate the general principle
that a trading ship only takes in as much of an
expensive coal as will serve to carry it to a cheaper
coaling port.

Coal gives the bulky outward freight which enables

* SWai/s of the Empire, by A. J. Sargent. London:
A. and C. Black Limited 1918; price 7s. 6d.

the tramp steamer to make a profit. Mr. Sargent
traces the intricate way in which a balance is main-
tained between outgoing and incoming cargoes.
Where the return cargoes are not sufficient he shows
how the surplus shipping is deflected to other routes
for the purpose of securing return freights. Thus,
the coal export trade of Great Britain has become a
factor in the economical employment of shipping in
bringing home supplies of food and raw materials.
In this way a change is foreshadowed by Mr. Sargent
in the position of the return voyage from India,
where the growing importation of South African
coal may tend to cheapen the cost of bunkers at
Bombay and Colombo. A trade route, in short, is
not a mere direction on a map, but a movement of
cargo in accordance with fixed economic laws, and
every new development of the coal export trade leads
to necessary modifications in the movement of ships.

Nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than by
the example of Durban and Cape Town. In 1902
about 750,000 tons of Welsh coal were taken to these
ports, whereas in 1912 this trade had dwindled
to insignificant proportions, notwithstanding the
superiority of Welsh coal to that of Natal. This
factor of South African coal is not only influencing
the South Wales export trade, but is also affecting
the whole bulk of steamship communication with
Australia, since the saving in Suez Canal dues,
added to the cheap South African bunker coal, more
than compensates for the longer route. Mr. Sargent
traces in a highly interesting way the connection
between the coal bill of the steamer and the route it
follows. He illustrates this relation by a careful
summary of the main conditions influencing the trade
routes to Australasia, India and the Far East.

The position around Suez is interesting, from the
fact that while more than 3,000,000 tons of coal are
carried into the Eastern Mediterranean, a continually
diminishing quantity finds its way through the Canal
to Aden, Bombay and Colombo. Thus a consider-
able proportion of the tonnage proceeding through
the Canal consists of ships in ballast, which have
discharged coal cargoes and are looking for return
freights to England, and the outward cargo of coal
serves to cheapen the homeward freight of foodstuffs
and raw material from the Far East. Thus, as the
author remarks, the real importance Of the coal trade
in the Mediterranean is its influence upon the problem
of the balance of cargoes in the Indian Ocean.

Discussing the significance of the Panama Canal,
the author remarks that it may be expected that
American shipping to Australasia may prefer this to
the Cape route; but the saving in freight will
depend partly on the Canal dues, and partly on the
cost of coal for the whole voyage, for there will be
no Durban on this route, although either American
or Australian coal will probably be stored on one of
the Pacific Islands.

With great skill Mr. Sargent analyses the shipping
routes of the world and shows that for Great Britain
the key commodity is coal. Especially interesting at
the present juncture is his picture of Germany as a
pre-war market for British coal. More than half the
coal which crossed the North Sea in 1912 was directed
to the Elbe. Hamburg alone took, in 1912, nearly
four times as much coal as Rotterdam or Antwerp,
in close competition with Westphalian supplies.
This coal was not used only for bunkering, since
about one-third of the up-stream traffic on the Elbe
consisted of British coal destined for industrial use
as far as Magdeburg, and owing to the German
canal system it even reached Berlin. Curiously also
British coal penetrated, by way of the Rhine, as far
as Mannheim beyond the Westphalian coalfield. In
addition to coal, Hamburg imported from the United
Kingdom both iron and steel, as well as wool, but
the only considerable export was sugar, the volume
of which, however, was not more than one-fifth that
of the imports from Great Britain. Coal, in fact,
here upsets the balance, and from Hamburg, Rotter-
dam and Antwerp, there was a great westward flow
of ships in ballast across the North Sea. Germany
also took a considerable quantity of British coal at
the Baltic ports of Kiel, Lubeck, Danzig, Konigsberg,
Memel and Stettin, notwithstanding the competition
of Silesian coal carried by inland waterways. It is
difficult to imagine the condition into which the
Baltic trade in timber, fuel and other commodities
would be placed in the absence of the heavy export
of British coal to that region.

In tracing thus the development and organisation
of trade routes on the basis of coal, whether as a
driving force for the ships or as a useful outward
cargo, Mt. Sargent sees conditions gradually
changing, with a growing decrease in the radius of
British coal as alternative sources of supply develop.
He looks forward to a not distant time when British
coal will not be sold beyond Suez, and American
competition will diminish our coal exports to South
America and will alter the flow of shipping along the
American coasts; while the comparative price of
British coal on the Suez route, and American coal on
the Panama route, will be a factor to be considered
in the future distribution of traffic to the Far East.
He discusses also the changes that may be brought
about by the use of oil fuel, and the prospect of
coaling ports becoming oiling ports; but we agree
with his general conclusions that in the present state
of our knowledge coal must still remain the chief
basis of our industrial and commercial organisation.