Mining Royalties Mr. Neville Chamberlain on Tuesday was curiously ambiguous
on one vital point in his announcement of the appointment of a Tribunal to determine the value of the mining royalties which the Government proposes to acquire. The Tribunal, which is to consist of Lord Justice Greene, Mr. Justice Clauson and Lord Plender, has been made necessary by the failure of the Government and the Mineral Owners' Joint Committee to agree on the amount of com- pensation to be paid. It is understood that the Government has assessed the value of the royalties at 17 years' purchase, the Committee at 25. The decision of the Tribunal, which is to give an arbitral finding, on the basis of a sale in the open market by a willing seller, is to be binding on the owners, if the Government proceeds with its present pro- posals. The Government, however, within six weeks of the Tribunal's decision, may decide not to proceed with its proposals, except at some figure to be reached by agreement with the owners. The Government was under- stood to have undertaken definitely to proceed with a Bill for the unification of mining royalties this session. Mr. Chamberlain's deliberate use of such terms as " in the event of " such unification is therefore disconcerting, and vigorous cross-examination by Opposition members failed to elicit any specific declaration that royalties are in fact to be unified. The Chancellor apparently wants to keep his hands free till he knows what the figure is.
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