In spite of Mr. Cook several members of the Miners'
Federation are moving fast towards- reason, and there is now a strong minority in the Federation which is recon- ciled to district arrangements for both wages and hours. It is understood that the General Council has received an assurance from the Government that if the miners do accept district settlements the Government will consider. what national principles can be observed and how they can be applied. On Tuesday the unions concerned in the proposed embargo on foreign coal absolutely refused to consider the miners' request.. Mr. Cook's demands were bluntly treated as impudent. Why did the miners not put an embargo on the men—nearly 300,000 now— who were producing coal in the British mines ? And- why did they not put an embargo on miners who had emigrated to the ports and were competing with the dockers ? Miner-dockers were actually unloading foreign coal while Mr. Cook had the effrontery to ask genuine dockers to throw themselves out of work.
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