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13 DECEMBER 1925

Reza Shah Pahlavi was confirmed as the new King of Persia.

The executive of the National Union of Railwaymen has decided that, unless a settlement is reached in a dispute on the Great Central section of the L.N.E.R. railway shopmen on those sections will cease work next Saturday. Several thousand shopmen are involved. An award of the Industrial Court, in operation on all lines except the two sections mentioned, is the cause of the dispute. Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester are among the centres concerned.

12 DECEMBER 1925

A resolution condemning the Government’s decision to close the Rosyth and Pembroke dockyards was defeated in the House of Commons.

The report stage of the supplementary estimates of £9,000,000 for the coal wages subsidy, and of £1,000,000 to cover the Government guarantee in connection with Wembley, was agreed to.

A Geneva message says that the attempt at mediation made by the Council of the League of Nations in the Mosul dispute has completely failed. The Council’s decision is expected on Tuesday at the latest.

The Australian High Court has ordered the immediate release from prison of Messrs Walsh and Johansen, the strike leaders, and granted costs against the Crown.

The death-roll in connection with the mining disaster near Birmingham, Alabama, is 61.

Nine persons were killed and 21 injured in a railway disaster in Southern India.

The franc reached the record low level of 131.80.

Mr Churchill, speaking at Battersea, described British Socialists as “our Socialist softies and fatheads,” and Moscow Communists as a band of cosmopolitan conspirators gathered from the underworld of Europe and America.

Commenting on the Liberal land scheme at Wick, the Duke of Atholl said that under the plan the land would be “simply more than ever the toy for political wire-pulling,” which he described as the curse of land-owning and farming in this country.

Evidence on behalf of shipping was given at the Coal Commission. Five shillings a ton difference in the cost of coal represented at least 4 per cent. in the capital cost of a ship. Export trade was hampered by delay at Welsh and other ports, where eight to ten days were required to load a cargo that could be done abroad in about three days.

Queen Mary, in a message to the National Chamber of Trade, expresses the hope that every Local Authority and every housewife will co-operate to make the British shopping week a success.

The inquiry by the Ministry of Transport into the Fenny Stratford charabanc disaster was begun. After the engine-driver, fireman, and guard of the train had given evidence, the Inspector stated he had received a message from the Coroner, and deemed it in the public interest that the inquiry should be held in private.

11 DECEMBER 1925

The Duke of Montrose is dead.

A Supplementary Estimate of £1,000,000 for the subsidy in aid of wages in the coal trade was passed by the House of Commons in Committee of Supply. The financial position of the British Empire Exhibition also came under discussion.

By 72 votes to 20 the Dail gave a second reading to the Treaty Agreement Bill.

The ballot vote of the West Lothian shale workers shows a large majority in favour of resumption of work.

At the sitting of the Coal Commission in London, the men’s leaders, in presenting their case, complained of mismanagement of collieries, and referred to the “universal recognition of the failure of the system of private ownership and working.”

General Laidoner reported to the Council of the League of Nations on the Turkish atrocities in the Mosul region. The Turkish delegates did not attend the meeting.

The Prince of Wales, who was the guest of the Argentine Club in London, spoke of the generous hospitality and boundless kindness accorded him during his recent visit.

The Newcastle steamer Landport collided with a Norwegian steamer and sank. Ten of her crew of twelve are missing. Details of the wreck of the Cardiff steamer Competitor off the south-east coast of Africa, show that only six of the crew of 46 were saved. It is feared that the Hull-owned steamer Derville, previously reported as overdue, has been lost with her crew of fifteen.

10 DECEMBER 1925

By the decision of the National Wages Board, no change will be made in the wages and conditions of the men—the companies not having made out their case for a reduction, and the Board not being able to entertain the claims of the men’s Unions for increases in wages and improvement in conditions.

The House of Lords passed through all its stages the Bill to confirm the recent Irish agreement, and the Glasgow Boundaries Bill was also disposed of. A new clause was inserted in the Criminal Justice Bill eliminating forfeiture of theatre licence as the sole penalty for the unauthorised performance of plays, and leaving it to the discretion of the Magistrates to impose a pecuniary penalty as an alternative to a temporary or permanent suspension of the licence.

Mr Snowden’s amendment for the rejection of the Safeguarding of Industries (Customs Duties) Bill was defeated in the House of Commons by 308 to 142, and the Bill was read a second time. Defending the duties, Mr Churchill said they covered one-three-hundredth part of our imports. The Government would require three hundred years to carry a general tariff at the rate they were proceeding. He affirmed his opposition to a general tariff, and said that the Government, while carrying out its safeguarding pledges, had no intention of reviving issues that would divide friends and unite opponents.

Questions relating to the duration of the Treaty with Iraq were asked in the House of Commons. There was very little truth, said the Prime Minister, in the suggestion that Britain was to be bound down to the protection of Iraq for another twenty-five years after the expiry of the present Treaty.

Lord Oxford, speaking at the Liberal Fair in London, said that “Fight every seat” would be one of their battle-cries in the next campaign.

Sir James Craig, Premier of Northern Ireland, explained in the House of Commons, at Belfast, the position of Ulster under the Boundary Agreement.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, speaking to his constituents at Port Talbot, said this country had lost its peasant population—it had wasted it. The Labour party could, however, bring them back by a well-devised scheme of land settlement. They would settle people on the land in groups of at least 200 families. Land settlement and afforestation must be co-ordinated.