The Prime Minister met the miners' leaders on Thursday week
and told them-plainly-that their new demand-for higher-wages was exorbitant. The industry as a whole' was losing motley. Tho exceptionally high prices obtained for coal exported from South Wales and Northumberland and Durham counterbalanced the losses on the home trade and left a surplus. The miners pro- posed to take all of it. That was Syndicalism in its worst and least intelligent form. The British taxpayers ought to benefit by this piece of luck, which might help-towards the purchase of mining royalties. The industry could not continue to depend upon tho profits made in one or two favoured -districts. Mr. Lloyd George told the miners' leaders that the Government could not accept their figures, which were indeed irreconcilable with the official estimates. As the Civil Service Estimates Include a coal subsidy of £15,000,000 for the coming year, the Coal Controller- does dot expect to make any profit with coal at its present price.
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