When the House of Commons reassembled on Tuesday after the
recess, Sir Robert Home made a statement regarding the coal strike. The miners had, he said, already received an increase of wages more than sufficient to meet the increase ill the cost of living since the Coal Commission reported last year. But the Government would readily submit this question of wages to arbitration by an impartial court. The output of coal had declined as the wages had risen, although the average yearly wages of miners, including women and boys, was £226. The Government had asked the miners to produce coal once more at the rate attained in the first quarter of the year as a con- dition of their receiving 2s. a day more in wages, but the miners had rejected the proposal. The Government could not simply grant the demand because it had been made, otherwise there would be no end to strikes. Sir Robert Horne deprecated the introduction of passion into the controversy between the community and a section. It seemed unreal that we should be seeking to replace war by international arbitration, favoured by the Labour Party, and yet we could not have arbitration in an industrial dispute.
