Dispute Over Details of Proposed Commission of Inquiry London, Mar. 5.
In connection with the joint conference between cotton employers and operatives at Manchester-to-day, it was announced that the employers had definitely withdrawn their recommendations regarding working-hours and wages. They suggested the establishment of a voluntary joint committee of inquiry to investigate finance, taxation, working-hours, wages, trade-union restrictions,' finishing charges, marketing and shipping.
Since the last meeting a fresh complication has arisen in consequence of a suggestion by cotton-spinners proposing that a ballot be taken in the American section on the question of reverting to organized short-time. A tentative motion in that connection ig likely to be raised at to-day's conference, although the employers have not yet @ecided on any definite steps.
Later.
The conference has been ruptured on the terms of reference for the committee of inquiry.
The operatives agreed to participate in a joint inquiry, with an independent chairman, if the terms of reference where revised so that each side should be allowed the assistance of competent accountant and statistician, The employers replied that the terms of reference were wide enough, that an independent chairman was unnecessary and that both sides were fully competent to des with any question submitted to the inquiry without the assistance of outside professional men, The operatives replied that they were not satisfied that the employers intended to have a full inquiry and declared that the responsibility for the breakdown of the conference rested with the employers—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.