* * * * This direct conference between the two
sides had been made possible by the owners announcing that they would come to it without imposing " any limitations or reservations at all upon the discussions." We have not generally felt that the owners were being wisely or tactfully led, but here was a wise and courageous advance which deserves to be acknowledged. The owners' concession did not of course necessarily imply any withdrawal of their demand that percentage additions should. be settled by districts and not nationally. No counter concession was made by the miners. At the end of the conference it was announced that a further meeting had been arranged for Wednesday afternoon. It should not be" forgotten that if the miners' wage rate was put back to that of 1921 they would really be in a better position than they were then owing to the fall in the cost of living. On Wednesday the owners and miners met again under the presidency of the Prime Minister and the worst crisis yet experienced arose when the owners proposed a 'return to a 48-houts week. A complete breakdown of the negotiations' was hardly —averted'. Day-to-day contracts with the men at the' mines•May be offered if nothing is settled before the subsidy ends but obViously that arrangement could not last long. Without the subsidy most of the pits would soon be bankrupt.
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