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NEW COAL CHARTER. .

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NEW COAL CHARTER. HIGH TENSION. STRANGE RUMOURS. A PECULIAR TELEGRAM. STRIKING SCENE ON CARDIFF EXCHANGE. AN EMPHATIC CONTRADIC- TION. TO-DAY'S DECISION. PROBABLE DEVELOPMENTS. To-day gives promise of furnishing one of the most noteworthy dates in the history of the South Wales coal and shipping trades. From the very commencement of the struggle over the new charter one cardinal point has been kept to the front in these columns, vie., the disastrous results of a stoppage, partial or otherwise, of the staple trade of South Wales. No word has been uttered as to the justice or injustice, the fairness or unfairness of the claims and contentions advanced on the one side or the other, but the points of difference and the plain facts of the case as between both parties have been laid bare with clearness and irresistible force. The grave issues involved in the struggle were not fully realised at the beginning of last week by 10 per cent. of the traders most nearly concerned. This was hardly to be wondered at, perhaps, considering the knotty, complex, and wholly unprecedented character of th3 question. Therefore, since the arrival of the time for directing concrete attention upon it, no efforts have been spared by this paper in affording every available and possible explanation. Leas than a week has sufficed to bring home to everyone connected with the coal and shipping trade of the district the truth of he statement advanced at the outset, viz., that if the parties concerned were sincere in the attitude they have taken up we were on the eve of one of the greatest dis- ruptions in the South Wales coal and shipping trade ever known, and that if they were not then that they had lent their names and reputa- tions to one of the biggest fiascoes imaginable. Attempts to provs that the struggle would end in l fiasco have been numerous, but the facta Drought forward have been too hard and real to foster belief in this direction. The struggle must now be recognised as A GRIM REALITY. Saturday furnished a striking example of this, and also showed clearly the high tension which now exists. As our readers should now be iware, all merchants and colliery proprietors who intend to accept the new charter must give notice to the Documentary Committee of the Chamber of Shipping not later than to-day, June 15th. Then in their case the terms of the charter will not be enforced until the 1st January next year. In all other cases it will be enforced on the 1st July next. Well, early on Saturday morning Messrs Pyman, Watson, and Co., large :0801 shippers, received a telegram to the effect that notices need not be sent in by the 15th, as a further conference between the parties had been arranged. One of the firm's officials immediately made the purport of the contents of the telegram public on the Exchange. All the morning thereafter there was a wild scene of excitement. For a time the floor of the Exchange was a rentable pandemonium. Merchants and colliery people were jubilant to a degree, and local shipowners, in the absence of any news on their lide, gave a flab contradiction to the iruth of the suggestion. All the same, they hardly knew for the time being what to make of the new development. fbe head of a large colliery informed our representative very early in the morning that a lelegram to the above effsct had been received. He added that it had been known on the previous afternoon that there was a movement in this direction. In concluding the conversation which ensued, he said the telegram was not official, but it was none the lees authentic." Our representative at once called upon Messrs Pyman, Watson, and Company, and Mr Pyman was good enough.to give him the purport of the wire. On being pressed for the full terms of of it, he said, after a moment's reflection, that he lAW no reason why the wish should not be com- plied with. THE TEXT OF THE TELEGRAM, laid to have been sent by Mr T. E. Watson, who was in London, WM as follows :—" No necessity to decide by the 15th Gunn has arranged for a new joint meeting." Mr Pyman was most anxious that it should be clearly understood that the telegram was in no way official. The explanation of it seemed to lie in the fact that Mr John Gunn, presi- dent of the Cardiff Chamber of Com- merce. and Mr T. E. Watson, who were in London attending the meetings of the Associated Chambers of Commerce had had a friendly chat on the previous afternoon with Mr Edward Pembroke, chairman of the Documentary Com- mittee. Charterers seemed to believe moat thoroughly in the authenticity of the telegram, and looked upon it as the beginning of the end of the struggle, arguing that it showed the position of the shipowners to be weak, and that they were giving way. It was said that Mr John Gunn, shrewd and able man as he is, and shipowner as he was before merchant, would not risk his reputation by any false step in a matter of such vast import to the district, and therein without a doubt centred the strong point in the whole circumstantial case. The totally unofficial character of the communication was lost sight of entirely. There is a chairman and a secretary of the Documentary Committee, and there are chairmen and secretaries of the local organisations. Why was there no communication through these ? Meanwhile local shipowners held a hastily called informal meeting, and decided at once TO BBFCDIATB THE AUTHENTICITY of the contents of the telegram. Furthermore, official and private telegrams were immediately despatched to London, stating what bad happened and asking for information. The delay which turned out to beunavoidable,inreceiving)repliesor auy further information but seemed to accen- tuate feelings on either side. The result was a most conglomerate mingling of jubilance, sad- ness, chaffing, and reproach on the heads of London shipowners whom it was feared by some had once more been paddling their own canoes and at the last moment had sold their Welsh brethren. Those ohiefly interested remained at their offices till late in the afternoon awaiting possible developments. The stand taken all through by Mr W. W. Jones, the South Wales representative on the Documentary Committee, was this: Certain resolutions had been passed at a formal meeting of the Documentary Committee fixing the 15th June and the 1st July as the dates for the purposes already referred to, and all necessary notices had been sent out in accordance with those resolutions. Therefore it was incompetent for any member of the committee or the chairman to alter the effect of the resolutions. That could only be done at a formal meeting of the committee, whereat the said resolutions must be rescinded. He had received no notice of any such meeting, and consequently the fall effect of the resolutions held good. Of course, he added, it was well within the province of any member of the committee to suggest the desirability of a further joint meeting or consider a suggestion to the same end in order to avoid a deadlock, and that seemed, on the face of it, a logical position to take up. In the course of the afternoon it was justified by the following reply sent to him by the secretary of the Documentary Committee Rumour unfounded all ad- hesions most be here on Monday abso- lutely." Captain Corfield, chairman of the Cardiff Shipowners' Association, and several private owners received telegrams to a similar effect. Telegrams of a like nature were also received from the Insurance and Indemnity Clubs. We are also informed that during the afternoon a wire was received from Mr T. iS. Watson, in London, stating that TJUBI: WAS NO TRUTH in the allegation that through Mr John Gunn another consultation or joint meeting of the Documentary Committee and the Charterers had been arranged for. Consequently the position, excitement and side winds notwithstanding, remains precisely the same, and a very dark and ugly position it is. The sugges- tion made in these columns that there should be a truce whilst further conferences can be arranged has been favourably received in many quarters, and if good feeling and common sense are permitted to hold sway, South Wales may yet be spared the sight and dire effects of a capitalists' fight over snch a comparatively small matter as that which forDM the crux of the dispote, via., the 2d wharfage. The man who can bring the two parties together in a conciliatory frame of mind will render an inestimable servioe to the trade and commerce of South Wales. There is yet time to act, bat the action should be prompt. The coal market is already beginning to suffer most aocately through the uncertainty which prevails. It may be well to explain here that there cannot be au absolute stoppage on the 1st July, because She char tarings effected before that day will be sure to hold oyer or about a fortnight. Even this ground will afford a little time for further deliberation.. Will to-day mark a turning point in the history of the dispute. We have received the following letter bearing on the matter for publication :— TO THE EDITOR. SIB,—In reference to the absurd rumour circu- lated on 'Change to-day to the effect that the date for handing in adhesions to the new form of coal charter had been postponed, I shall feel obliged it you will give it an absolute contradiction. Shortly after midday Mr Edward Pembroke, the obainaan of the Documentary Committee, sent me the following telegram Monday is the last day for notices." Thanking you in anticipa- tion,—1 am, &c., W. R. CORFIELD, OhMpoM Cardiff Shipofwnap* AjepowMion.

SIR W. T. LEWIS'S BARONETCY

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