16 OCTOBER 1926, Page 2

Meanwhile, the safety-men themselves decided to take no notice of

the decision of the Delegate Conference. Mr. Cook was evidently awed by this fact, as, speaking last Saturday in Nottinghamshire, he advised the men to think before they sanctioned the flooding of the pits. Last Saturday it was possible to say that so far as Leicestershire was concerned the coal dispute was ended, for the Miners' Council there formally decided not to continue the struggle. On Tuesday there was a very significant breakaway from the unyielding policy of the Federation in the Lancashire and North Wales areas where hitherto only a small proportion of the men had returned to work. Yorkshire will no doubt follow. On Wednesday the total number of miners at work was nearly a quarter of a million.