Norwich bulletin., 1921-04-08

and fear ended with one of the prime I minister's characteristic eleventh hour lnterventions. bringing renewed prospects l that gthe grave industrial crisis will be commons tonight the willingness of the government to participate in .conferenee to discuss the question Of pumping be- fore other matters were soncidered.
 ~ Informal confereg ces continued throughout the evening. moderates like Mir Asquith. Lord Robert Cecil. Arthur Henderson and John Robert Clynes work ing hard in an endeavor to induce the miners to relent on the question of pumping and 1t was supposed that the whode question was turning on this s.en-
 der hope. t.4
 Premier Lloyd George had been absent during the latter hours of the debate on the situation but returned to the nouse 1 unexpectedly at eleven o'clock and h. l formed the members that the -ovcrnnent had agreed to a course. which .t s be-
 lieYed practically certain the miners will | aecept-the calling of a conference of | owners and miners .o discuss with the ! government the difficulty relative 10 the
 pumping of the mines before 'tel~hir 2 | upon the question of va ses ard otnpr
 matters involved in the demands of ;!,e
 men.
 What steps exactly had ..i tv th's l change of front are unknown as ye. Ar | thur Henderson, who rose to reply to the premier was clearly non-plussed. He | had. he said. to express rsz-.t that the
 premier had not given notice of such
 an important statement. as Mir Tfiom-
 as. secretary of the National Union of
 Rai.waymen, to whose suggestion ii ap- parent.y was due. and other leaders, mad gone home.
 As he had earlier explained. ;ae nm CTS federation would have u-efcrrci to open the conference without conditions n
 either side, but he had not an ,p7ortun.-
 ty to consult the fedora ion since the
 afternoon; therefore he coHld rot ss-
 sume responsibility in me matter Hc
 thought the only safe line would be for
 the prime minister to put his statemf nt
 into letter to the officials fir cons.d. eration.
 The organizations composiaZ Ire triri, , alliance held no further n1ee.ines to night; they are apparently holding ls-- 4i until tomorrow. The board of trade IS
 sued an ofncisl report of today's nesu [ tiations for the enlightenment CT lie pub , lie The report sets 10Th the i,eu ments of both sides ani. eonr.uatn- vii D a strong repudistion If the ac..usatitI
 that the government Is eaes Sei .n q zen
 eral attack on wages, says
 li Such. charge $ as monstrous T., 3 it is unfouhded. Tie government an, , community alike a-e desirous that :h t best wages should De pzi in every ;r
 dustry that such industry can afford
 The council of the in dependent laro |. party called upon ail iis members f . support the miners by every means il l thenr power, declaring the crisis va l. due to "an attempt on the part of or
 sanized capitalism 10 establish the righ
 e ra1t GaN .a c standard of living. which must be re sisted at all costs"
 f In announcing today the decision of tn r railwaymen to give their support to th
 miners. J. H. Thomas. the rsilwaymen'
 general secretary. said the meeting ha .- unanimously decided that the terms of if fered the miners was such as iustifie . their refusal to accept them. It woui 2 only be the beginning of a. general attac
 on working class conditions and an al
 tempt to bring about the standard C eI living that prevailed before the war, h ii declared. ,--. e A verbatim report of the conferenc .o which the miners had at the prime mimi
 ters official residence in Downing stre,
 this morning shows that an impasse wa ,f reached over the return of the pumpme & and other safety workers as a preliminsr k. to. the reopening of the peace negoti; it tions. To this proposition. forcefully D,
 by MT. Lloyd George and other cabin,
 members. Committeeman Stalker of II if miners executive body replied:
 a fx. T am not an extremely hot-heade n man. but l would rather cspitulate abs, IS lutely than enter into negotiations with
 condition of that kind laid down befor
 hand.".
 |. The prime minister continued to p,, IL his condition strongly, when Connmitte all man Smith, another of the miners, inte as posed: ,E. h. If you insist upon that, and say il ! safety of the mines will not be concede
 that you will not permit our taking ii of necessary steps to- ensure. the safety CT the mines until we have conceded befor by hand two things which. amongst other a. Will have to be discussed. then it is an ir ks possiole position That is an ultimatt Of much more serious character" Frank Hodges. the miners secretar a confirmed the miners position by sayin, d. That is the decision of the Miner .uy federation"
 SC The governmental conferees retired F. this Juncture, and when they returned
 the end of twelve minutes Premier Llo, lGeorge said: .--- h. When l invited you here I was md ,y the impression that there was a nisuJ nd loerStandlng which could be cleared nm in open and frank discussion. but the sta, ii- nents made on behalf of the miners h dlsclosed that there is a much orav divergence of opinion than I anticipat f, a understand that the threat to destr re the mines by deliberate action which h en been taken to achieve that end is ,o d. lutllized as means to force the owne ey "no nave got their interest in the min, de ana To force the nation. which has A s,
 greater interest in the mines to capitul
 ton upon the two main claims which ] ,m put forward by the miners
 r. I think that the decision of the rn;,, " IS one or the Eravest mistakes in psvch on ogy ever made by the leaders of a rr, on organization The assumption that n, ie, could be frightened into the accentar [ or conditions which would not o,bsrx, 4 appeal 10 them by threat of that Ri i,t shows a complete failure to undsrs,s h. the psychology of ones. own fellow COL da trymen. VI ter To make these two conditions ess. lty tial as preliminary steps for saving f lto mines IS what no government could D
 sioy recommend. I realize that fl
 cnallenge put forward by the miners led nucn grsver, much deeper. much m .nt ttundamental than ever I realized" ed The premier gave the miners an opp He tunity of eonferring privately. which n a. declined. IL was agreed that ibc photographic report Of the proceedinys .ur made public and the conference ended S1W was attended, in addition to the pri