6 DECEMBER 1919, Page 2

The result of the South Wales miners' ballot on Income

Tax has been announced two or three times, and each time has been announced differently. In the end, however, it appears that there was a very small majority—under 1500—in a vote of 140,000. Small though the majority is, it has committed itself to the utterly wrong principle that a strike would be justified in order to evade paying Income Tax on salaries of less than £250. It is difficult to believe that this minute majority will really be used as a justification for a strike, especially as it is reported that two branches did not return their papers,

contenting themselves with a verbal explanation that they were unanimously opposed to a strike. If this be true, there was, as a matter of fact, an actual majority against a strike.