Coal Strike Keynotes

1,106,200. A report issued last week by the Ministry of Labor placed the number of miners unemployed as a result of the continued British coal strike (TIME, May 10 et seq.) at 1,106,200.

3 1/2 Hours. The expectantly awaited informal miner-owner conference (TIME, June 14) assembled in London last week. In 3 1/2 hours it reached a state of complete deadlock on all points, adjourned amid recriminations.

Stiff Protest. Goaded by Tory ire, the Baldwin Government addressed a stiff protest to the authorities at Moscow last week complaining that the Anglo-Russian Trade Agreement of 1921 had been violated by the Soviet Government in despatching funds to the support of the British "general strike" (TIME, May 10 et seq.). No mention was made of funds now passing from Moscow to London-- though -L-30,000 was thus added to the coal strikers' war chest last week--because the "coal strike" had not yet been officially declared "subversive" (as was the "general strike" but still retained the character of a purely industrial dispute.

"Thank God for Russia!" The Earl of Birkenhead, bitter-ender Tory, Secretary of State for India, lashed at "Emperor" A. J. Cook, Secretary of the Coal Miners' Federation, as follows in a public address:

"Cook, who once described himself as a humble disciple of Lenine, has recently thanked God for Russia and has explained that the sum of -L-400,000 had been received from their comrades in the Russian mines in order to support the dependents of their English colleagues in a moment of adversity. It is indeed a touching reflection that the miners of Russia are prepared to work ten hours a day in order that their British colleagues may not have to work eight. . . .

"The moneys received by the British miners do not come from the Russian miners, but officially from the Soviet Government, whose intentions, openly avowed, are to foment revolution."

The Charge d'Affaires of the Soviet Legation at London issued an official statement: "No money whatever has been contributed to any British strike fund at any time by the Soviet Government."

Presumably endless correspondence will ensue between London and Moscow in an effort to settle whether the moneys in question were technically sent by the Soviet Government proper or merely by its closely interlocked Soviet trade union organizations.