NEWS OF THE WEEK.
APART from the certainty that some beneficent forces are at work behind the scenes, there is nothing but present failure to record in connexion with the coal strike. Imme- diately after we went to press last week, the dispute, though seeming on the verge of settlement, took another violent lurch in the wrong direction. The Government had screwed up their offer of a temporary subsidy to £10,000,000—surely a generous sum. Wages were not to be reduced in May more than 3s. per shift or more than 3s. 6d. in June. There was to be a National Board arranging wages by district scales. The Government offer was dependent upon the terms being accepted for a year. The Miners' Executive, after all, reported unfavourably to the delegate conference in London, and the conference formally rejected the whole plan on the ground that it did not concede the fundamental principle of a National Wages Board and a National Pool.
