The men on the whole have responded to the Conference's
instruction without delay. At the beginning of the week there was some fear that the South Wales miners would remain out until the demands of the enginemen had been accepted by the owners, but on Wednesday night they decided to return to work without waiting for a settlement of the surface-men's dispute. The only serious trouble has been in South Lancashire, where, in the district between Wigan and Manchester, some 20,000 men have obeyed the appeal of Mr. Greenall, the president of the county union, and refused to return to work. Some rioting took place on Wednesday in the neighbourhood of Wigan, and that night some 1,500 troops were despatched there, but on Thursday the situation improved. Meanwhile, the price of coal is already falling, the railways are slowly increasing their train services, and a general revival of industry has begun all over the country.