casting a Government enterprise, received the approval of the House of Commons on November 15. The Postmaster-General, in asking for a supplementary estimate of 295,000l. for expenses in connexion with the broadcasting services, explained that the Government was following the advice of the Committee presided over by Lord Crawford, which, after having gone fully into the matter, had recommended that, while the Postmaster-General should be left with the ultimate responsibility, the actual administration of the service should be entrusted to a corporation acting as trustees in the national interest. The Minister paid a tribute to the vision and patriotism of the British Broadcasting Company, which, during the four years of its existence, had looked at the problem of broadcasting, not from the trade, but from the national, angle. The old Broadcasting Company would receive 540,000l. for the property, and the shareholders would be bought out at par. The Government reserved the right to take over the whole of the broadcasting system in case of national emergency. Various speakers in the debate inclined to the view that the exclusion of controversial matter from broadcasting, which was one of the principles of the existing Company, tended to make it dull and to impair its educational value, but the Government could not promise any change of policy in this respect.

On November 17, in the House of Lords, Lord Parmoor and Lord Oxford expressed apprehensions that the League of Nations was not making much progress with its efforts to secure disarmament. They received a reassuring reply from Lord Cecil, who pointed out that important practical steps had been taken in this matter since the Locarno Agreement, and as a result of the improved international atmosphere which that event had created. The consequence was that in the past year disarmament had become a practical and actual question, and was being considered not from the point of view of whether it could be done, but how it could be done. He dated the change from the acceptance by the Assembly of the French proposal for the appointment of a Preparatory Commission. This Commission had proceeded in a business-like way, and was producing valuable reports. He had been struck, at the discussions of the sub-committees at Geneva, by the goodwill displayed by everybody, and the absence of obstruction; the American delegation had been particularly helpful. He thought, too, that the discussions had shown disarmament to be a practical thing, and he believed that success could be achieved on three conditions: first, that peoples and Governments should be in earnest in the matter; secondly, that they should not be in too great a hurry; thirdly, that each country should say what armaments it thought essential for its defence, and that the Preparatory Commission should formulate a scheme according to the demands of the different countries.

On the same day (November 17) the Minister of Health

applied to the House of Commons for liberty to expend any public moneys that might be required for the operation of the Government's schemes for improving the housing accommodation of the agricultural labourers. The Labour Party could not deny that the object of the resolution was commendable, but to show their disapproval of the way in which the Government approached the problem of housing the rural labourer, they moved that the expenditure to be incurred should be limited to 100,000l. -a wholly illogical proceeding, as Mr. Chamberlain pointed out. The amendment was defeated, as was also one providing that financial assistance should not be given in respect of buildings such as stables, not normally used for human habitation.

The coal stoppage for the second time threw its shadow across the national finances on November 16, when Sir K. Wood, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, moved a supplementary vote of 3,250,000l. for making loans to Boards of Guardians unable to carry out from their own resources the relief of unemployment. In explaining the need for this sum, the Minister drew a distressing picture of the state of a considerable part of the country. The amount distributed in poor relief, he said, during the six months ended September 30, 1926, had been 13,000,000l., as against 7,000,000l. for the corresponding six months in the previous year. The number of persons at that moment being assisted from the rates in the mining districts alone was over 2,000,000l. Some twenty-four Boards of Guardians in the distressed areas had drastically cut down relief, or had refused outdoor relief altogether; others, being unable to meet the increased demands. on them from their own resources, had borrowed first from the Banks and then from the Government, which had already advanced about 3,000,000l. in this way. Relief in many cases, he remarked, had been granted on loan, to be repaid by the borrowers when they returned to work; it had been found in previous disputes where this policy had been adopted that these obligations had been honourably met. On the authority of the officers of the Ministry, he denied that there were any cases in which Boards of Guardians had failed to relieve destitution, and he repeated the statement made by Mr. Baldwin in August (and which was not refuted in the debate), that the children of the miners were better fed than when their fathers were at work. In a debate on necessitous areas a couple of days later, Mr. Greenwood expressed the Labour view of the Minister of Health's policy by saying that he had administered the Poor Law of 1834 in the spirit of 1834, and that the acts of the Ministry implied that the miners and their families were to be treated, if not as actual criminals, at least as bordering on the criminal class.

In accordance with the resolution of the Delegate Conference on November 11, the Miners' Executive resumed negotiations with the Government on the next day. The Government laid before them

a list of proposals which it did not guarantee to represent the owners' views in all particulars, but which it thought it could bring the owners to accept, if necessary. There was little, indeed, in the proposed terms to which the owners could take objection, as nearly all the points on which they had been insisting were conceded. The Miners' Federation was to do all in its power to promote an immediate resumption of work by means of district settlements, from the negotiations for which the hours to be worked would not be excluded. District agreements were to be regarded as "standard" if they conformed to certain general principles, viz., contained provision for setting up a district board with an independent chairman, for the periodical ascertainment of trading results, for the periodical regulation of the district percentage on a ratio varying between 87 to 13 and 85 to 13, for a minimum of not less than 20 per cent. on the socalled "standard" wage, for the payment of subsistence wages to low-paid day-wage men at the rate paid in April until the end of January, 1927, and for a duration of the agreement of at least three years. The Government on its side undertook to set up an arbitral authority from members of the Industrial Court appointed by the Minister of Labour, which would have power to revise agreements other than standard agreements and including longer hours than those worked in April, 1926. The owners also, according to the Government, offered to pay temporarily the April rate of wages, except in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and North Wales.

The discussion of these proposals commenced at once, and went on until three o'clock the next morning. The miners' delegates tried hard to get them amended in a sense more favourable to themselves, but in the end obtained only one concession of any importance—the omission of a clause stating that workmen would be reinstated as opportunity offered "without prejudice to the men already at work," and the substitution for it of the reinstatement clause contained in the 1921 settlement, which in the opinion of the miners provided them with a better safeguard against victimisation.

On the next day (November 13) the Executive laid the Government terms before the Delegate Conference. Mr. Cook described them as "surrender " terms, and opposed acceptance, saying it was better that the districts should come to such terms as they could independently, as then at least the Federation would have no need to approve of them. But the fight had by this time gone out of the majority of the delegates, since they knew they could not much longer hold the men back from resuming work, and the Conference ultimately decided to lay the terms before the districts with a recommendation for acceptance.

This meant the end of the struggle, though the resistance of the miners was still to give a bright flicker before it finally collapsed.

The result of the voting in the districts was made known on November 18, and was found to give a majority of nearly 150,000 against acceptance of the Government proposals. Large majorities for rejection were registered in Scotland, South Wales, Durham, and Northumberland, in Lancashire there was a small majority against, and in Yorkshire a small majority for acceptance. All the time that the votes were being recorded the drift back to work continued at the rate of thousands a day, and it was obvious that the most obstinate were not prepared to hold out much longer.

In face of this situation, the Delegate Conference of the Miners' Federation, which met on November 19, did not regard the vote of the districts as a warrant for continuing the struggle, and passed a resolution recommending all district associations immediately to open negotiations with the coal-owners in their respective districts. In order, however, to save some semblance of authority for the Federation, the Conference charged the districts not to enter into a final settlement until a further National Conference should have been held, at the same time commissioning the Executive Committee to frame general principles for guiding the districts in their negotiations. This body accordingly, on the next day (November 20), submitted to the Conference six recommendations dealing with wages, notice, and reinstatement, but not touching the question of hours. After three hours' discussion the Conference adopted these proposals, and urged the districts to enter into negotiations with the employers as soon as possible on this basis. No notice was taken of the Government's offer to set up a tribunal, which was, in fact, formally withdrawn about this time.

The Delegate Conference of the Miners' Federation met again on November 25 for the purpose of examining any district agreements that might have been made, but its services were not required. Negotiations were still proceeding in all the districts, but no agreements had yet been definitely concluded, and the attitude of the employers made it clear that, in any case, no revision by the Federation would be tolerated. The Conference therefore contented itself with passing a resolution expressing its indignation at the terms offered by the owners in several districts, and broke up without making any arrangements for another Conference. This was tantamount to declaring that the stoppage was at an end as far as the Federation was concerned; and any doubts that might have been held on this point were settled by the action of the Lancashire delegates, in sending a telegram at the close of the Conference to their association in Bolton instructing the men to sign on immediately on the terms negotiated with the owners.

Although nearly half the miners were by this time back at work, the Home Secretary, on November 26, once more-for the last time, as it proved-asked the House of Commons to renew

the Emergency Regulations. He had, he said, already decided to allow them to lapse when a new disturbance occurred which made him think that they were still necessary. The renewal of the Regulations was condemned by Labour members as being itself a hindrance to the restoration of good feeling in the coalfields. As it turned out, both sides were alarming themselves unnecessarily. On November 27 the Government removed the restrictions on the purchase of coal, considering that the amount already being produced from the pits rendered any further rationing unnecessary. In the course of the ensuing week agreements were concluded in all the districts, and by the beginning of December the stoppage could be said to be definitely at an end, just seven months after it had begun. Before the end of the week the return to work had become so general that on December 2 the Home Secretary thought it safe to revoke all the penal Emergency Regulations, leaving only those which dealt with the export of coal; and these also were revoked after the lapse of a few days.

The terms on which the miners went back to work were substantially the same as those which were offered to them by the owners after the passing of the Eight-Hours Act in July, and were much more favourable in some districts than in others. They included in every case a working day of seven-and-a-half or eight hours, but involved either little or no reduction of wages from the April level. The agreements were in all cases for a term of years, and were not subject to revision by any tribunal. Thus the determined stand of the miners cost them dear, since the terms they finally obtained were in most cases, on the balance distinctly worse than those which had been offered to them in April before the stoppage began, and they also lost their chance of obtaining a tribunal to which they could appeal against terms which appeared iniquitous. The owners, on the other hand, gained their way completely on all points in dispute, and had the further satisfaction of seeing the virtual disappearance from the scene, for the time being, of the Miners' Federation, which had long contested with them the right to control the destinies of the industry.

During the seven months that the bulk of the miners were without their regular employment, they had derived support for themselves and their families from various sources. Some hundreds of them found lucrative occupation in digging outcrop coal, but this was a dangerous practice which led to several fatal accidents. Huge sums were granted in relief to miners' dependents from local rates to which, ironically enough, the colliery owners themselves were, in many cases, the largest contributors. Besides the contributions of the trade unions, large sums were subscribed by the general public to relief funds opened by the Labour Party and other bodies. A gift which attracted particular attention