The Government, when they at last decided to check the
lawless spirit shown in South Wales. in Lanarkshire, and in Fife, acted with good sense. Troops and police were sent to South Wake, and the pumps were set going at the pits. At the great Cambrian collieries in the Rhondda Valley, where the miners' union had forced the pump-men to stop on the Friday, the inrush of water had almost ruined the workings. In the Scottish coalfield the damage done by flooding during the week was estimated at 15,000,000 ; some of the pits, it is said, will never be reopened. In Fife the extremists, who are mainly Irish Sinn Feiners, refused to obey the instructions of the Miners' Federation and prevented the pumps from being worked. There were, it seems, no troops available in this district to meet this deliberate defiance of the law. The Scottish Miners' Union decided on Tuesday that they ought " not to use force" against the coal-owners and officials who were trying to save the pits from destruction. The pumps were restarted on Wednesday under military protection.
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