The final split, if there should be one in the
mining dispute, will be due to the foolish insistence upon a punctilio. The miners insist that the owners should withdraw their proposals before they consent to meet them for further negotiations. Yet though the owners have withdrawn neither their proposals nor their notice to terminate the National Agreement, they have repeatedly stated their willingness to treat the whole dispute as an " open situation." They point out that there would be little meaning in withdrawing their proposals, as that could only mean that they had ceased to believe in their own reasoning—which would be untrue. Meanwhile the Court of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Mr. H. P. Macmillan has carried on its work without the co-operation of the miners, who have refused to attend. This refusal by the miners is a bad mistake in tactics. The Court has no powers whatever except to inform the public of the facts. The Labour Party is always extolling the virtues of publicity, but we fear that the miners are going the right way to forfeit a good deal of public sympathy. This is a pity, for fairness compels us to record our belief that public sympathy with the miners has run fairly strong from the beginning. It is useless for Mr. Macmillan to appeal to the owners not to wreck the future on a punctilio if the miners outclass them in pedantry. Both sides ought freely to remove impediments.
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