19 JULY 1919, Page 3

The so-called profits which the State was said to have

made out of the coal industry during the war were, Sir Auckland Geddes said, made by bartering coal for neutral goods which we needed. That process of barter had. ceased, We had not the coal to export. The course of exchange would go against us, and our food would cost us more. He appealed to the miners' leaders to emphasize the importance of a greater output. The key of the position rested with the miners: If they would work, the price of coal might soon fall.