Pederation arrived at the Ministry of Health this afternoon for their conference with the Central Comtion, no representatives of the coal-owners were present.
It was learned that the coal-owners had decided to decline the Mr, Thomas's Scheme London, Nov. 4. invitation to the con-they were not pre-
In'the House of Commons to-da; in the debate on unemployment, Me. J.-H, Thomas, Lord Privy Seal and Minister dealing with—unemployment, declared that he never pretended to have a magic cure for employment, which was not a temporary problem that could be cured by temporary measures. Ile said that during the past three months the Unemployment Grants Committee had sanctioned the expenditure of £11,000,000, while a further 87,000,000 had been sanctioned for industrial improvement schemes, £21,000,000 for roads, and £3,000,- '000' for Colonial development, making a total of 242,000,000. Ie added that schemes involving many more millions were under review.
Dealing with *the difficulties municipalities and the Governmeat acquiring land for roads, Me. Thomas foreshadowed early legislation to tax land value; increment.
Mr. Thomas declared that 600,000 tons of British hard coal would b> sent to Canada this year, and that the difficulty next year would not be to secure customers but to moot the demand. He was-also hopeful regarding soft coal, and stated that traders had ordered five 7,000-ton of a national hi tions and for a reduction in hours without a reduction in wages.
Executive of the Miner tion intimated their readi ness to proceed with the Conference and pressed the whole of their demands on the Government.
The conference, it will be remem-ered, was called in an effort to pro-over the Government's "proposals to reduce the Acceptance of the invitation by the miners' executive was notified.
Acceptance by the central committes of the Coal Owners Asse tion, however, was never certain, but the fact that the invitation was not sent until after a consultation had taken place between the President lof the Board of Trade and the president and secretary of the Coal Owner's Assceiaticn suggested that a refusal was not expected by the Government.
There was reason to believe that the intention of the Government was to press on the owners the view that every possible effort should be made to carry on, without any claim for: lower wages, and that the opportunity now existed for opening a new chapter of relations between the owners and miners—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.