Last week we pointed out that the Government's reasons for
breaking off or suspending the negotiations on Sunday, May and, were not as clear as they ought to have been. This is a matter of some moment, as we were entitled to expect that at the end of the nine months' breathing space, paid for by the heavy subsidy, all the original obscurity would have disappeared. When the subsidy was offered in order to keep the peace we welcomed it on the ground that a conflict at that moment would have been disastrous as very few people understood the rights and wrongs. of the coal dispute, and there was as a matter of fact much sympathy with the miners. On Sunday, May znd, the Government were still negotiating, although the Council of the Trades Union Congress had already ordered a general strike. If the Government had broken off negotiations because of that threat they would have been in a logical position and would, of course, have been quite justified. The negotiations, however, continued and they were not suspended by the Govern- ment—although the basis for a conference on the Com- mission's Report seemed then to be within sight—until the news arrived of the strike at the Daily Mail.
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