27 JULY 1929, Page 3

The Cotton Crisis Unless the employers and the trade unions

in the cotton industry come to terms by the end of this week there will be a stoppage affecting 500,000 persons. Unhappily, the conference which searched for a basis of negotiation, on Friday, July 19th, was a complete failure. The employers refused to discuss anything but the proposed reduction of wages by 121 per cent., and the operatives would not be satisfied without an extension of the area of negotiations. At the eleventh hour there is a tendency among the operatives to yield a point rather than consent to the delays of a Govern- ment inquiry.