§ SIR EDWARD WATKINasked Mr. Attorney General, If he has taken steps to ascertain the correctness of the reports given in "The Times" of the 29th April and 1st May, of two meetings held at Leeds on the 28th and 29th April, composed of delegates from coal miners of the United Kingdom, by which reports it appears that a "National Federation" (to be organized by a Committee of nine elected by such meeting of delegates) is to be established; and by which reports it further appears that some of the delegates present at the meetings proposed that, failing other measures bearing upon the question of wages, a simultaneous and general cessation of labour in all the collieries in the Kingdom should be brought about; and, assuming that any such simultaneous and general cessation be an object of the proposed federation, whether that federation would not become, under the existing law, an illegal combination, rendering its promoters liable to penal consequences?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALSir, my hon. Friend was good enough to give me previous Notice of the Question which he a few days ago placed upon the Paper, and which he has just read, and at the same time to supply me with copies of the reports given in The Times of the two meetings held at Leeds on the 28th and 29th of April; and, for the purpose of replying to the Question of my hon. Friend, I shall assume that such reports are correct. It would appear from such reports, that the persons present at the meetings referred to, and who are described as delegates of the National Association and of the Amalgamated Society of Miners, as well as of some independent bodies of workmen, passed a resolution to the effect that the establishment of a national union or confederation was highly desirable, and that a committee of nine members of the conference was appointed to draw up a code of rules for the government of the federation. It also appears that in the course of the discussion which preceded the passing of the resolution, one of the delegates present suggested that, if things could not be otherwise righted, all the miners in Great Britain should give up working simultaneously for a 389 prescribed period, and that such views were supported by two others of the delegates present. When, however, this suggestion was made, the hon. Member for Stafford (Mr. Macdonald), who was in the Chair, observed that a general cessation of labour would be inflicting unmerited wrong on an innocent third party—namely, society at large. Those remarks appear from the reports to have been well received by the meeting, and the name of the hon. Member stands first upon the list of the committee who were appointed, whilst neither of the delegates who advocated cessation of labour was placed upon it. Having thus replied to the first part of the Question of my hon. Friend, I trust that the House will agree with me in the opinion, that it would not be consistent with my duty as a Law Officer of the Crown to make any definite reply to its second part, which, from the form in which it is expressed, evidently assumes that, in the opinion of my hon. Friend, the proposed federation may become an illegal combination, and inquiries of me whether its promoters would not become liable to penal consequences in a certain hypothetical event, the circumstances of which it is impossible to predicate, even if the probability of its happening could be reasonably assumed.