No sensible person, of course, ever pretended that the purchase
of the royalties would save the nation money or make it economically possible to pay the miners higher wages. Our point is rather that if the Report is not taken as, a whole negotiations are likely to be much more diffi- cult than they need be. Even now we suspect that the Government would go back to the policy of the Report, and nothing but the Report, if the miners asked for it. This; we think, the miners ought to do. The tragedy is that they could have had the Report at any moment up to two or three weeks ago if only they had said the word, and It obviously contains much that is favourable to them. They may now have to agree to a small reduction in wages without getting all the Report. The handling of their case by Mr. Cook has been bad beyond belief.
