London, Feb. 11.
A meeting between representatives of wireless operators and em-players brought about by the Minister of Labour began to-day at the Ministry.
'A proposal by the employers that the men on strike should return to their ships on the reduced terms suggested and that discussion should take place afterwards was resisted by the men's representatives.
The Ministry is pow engaged in sisting the parties to arrive at a at a settlement, tween the representatives of the striking wireless operators and of the shipowners have-ended deadlock—with no immediate prospect of a settlement, According to the chairman of the Operators' Association, who said that the employers simply repeated their terms and gave the Associa tion seven days to accept, threatening in the event of refusal to offer certain conditions to the men individually, the failure to agree was confined to questions of wage and reinstatement of the strike the employers insisting that men must resume at reduced rat and be reinstated only as the! employers were able to offer service, The Chairman said in conclusion that there were 1,300 ships now going to sea without qualified wireless operators of which over 1,900 were striking, Later A statement of the Wireless Telegraphists Association says that the operators are prepared—to submit the whole dispute to the Industrial Court, but are not prepared to prejudice the case before the Court by accepting the totally unjustified reduction, They point out that the wireless operators had accepted reductions in 1922 and 1624 in addition to any reduction Accepted by the other seafarers. 0 Employers' Proposals Unanimously] a Rejected Fob. 15.
A mass meeting of wireless opera tors in London to-day unanimously} rejected the employers' proposed terms of settlement and decided to continue the strike until a satis question time in the House of Commons to-day Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, Minister of Labour, refused to appoint a commission ut inquiry into the marine wireless dispute on the groun court would be only empowered to ment. He said that the issues have More Than One-Third Given Over to Internal Combustion Engines London, Feb. 15.
The annual report of the British Chamber of Shipping states that} the past year has seen a further development in the construction of motor tonnage, notwithstanding decreased coal prices and an increase and uncertainty in the cost of ai fuel.
Of the tonnage launched in Great) Britain and Ireland in 1923. about 134 per cent. was motor tonnage. The proportion rose in 1924 to 163 per cent. and the tonnage under construction at the end of that year was 243 per cent.
The proportion had risen by the end of December, 1925, to more than one-third.
The report adds: "If the cost of raising steam by coal is taken xs} (00, the corresponding cost where is used under boilers on the is of the present prices is 258 does not allow for the and the economies facilitated by the nse of oil. Generally, it may be considered that, wherever oil can, bbe economically obtained, the trade of first-class passenger' lines has been lost to coal as-regards motor} power. But oil is not likely wholly supplant coal as a steam raiser, unless the price of coal increases of the price of oil diminishes. The question of conversion upon the relative price of coal and oil."—Bri ish Wireless through Reu-te
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.