It may be denied to the Fellowship to help directly.
The Bishops and others who approached the Prime Minister carried the proposals, endorsed by the miners' leaders, that work should be resumed with hours and pay as before May 1st ; that a subvention should be provided by the Government for four months and administered under a scheme to be drawn up by the Coal Commissioners ; and that in other respects the recommendations generally of the Report should be carried out. Mr. Baldwin, in a letter consenting to an interview, by word of mouth at the interview, and in a speech delivered at Norwich, was respectful and sympathetic, but he made it quite Plain that he was determined not to fly in the face of the Royal Commission by giving any new subvention. Most of the positive recommendations he is trying to carry out as quickly as may be, and he could not consistently neglect that negative recommendation that all subsidies should stop and not be renewed. In regard to terms of wages and hours the Government had done all they were justified in doing, and those must now be left to the em- ployers and employed to settle between themselves.
Previous page
