7 SEPTEMBER 1929, Page 3

Dr. Dalton, on behalf of the Government, has urged the

Council of the League to extend the beginnings of regulation made by the League's Economic Com- mittee and by the International Labour Office. The coal- owners might insist that there shall be somebody to speak for the British coal industry as a whole. If they do not they will be t inviting nationalizaion, which the present Government might only too easily be induced to impose upon them. The Mining Association argues that it has no authority to discuss wages and working conditions. If it has not it ought to acquire the authority. Really the owners could do much more than they have yet done to help themselves. And time is of the essence of the problem.