§ MR. CLYNES (Manchester, N.E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that many disputes, causing stoppage of work, occur because of the refusal of the employers or their agents to meet the appointed representatives of the workmen; and whether he can present to the House any record showing the number and extent of such disputes during recent years.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI am aware that the refusal of one or other of the 627 parties to trade disputes to meet the representatives of the other party has sometimes tended to cause and more frequently to prolong the stoppage of work. The records of trade disputes published by the Board of Trade only take into account the principal and direct causes of the disputes, and not the contributory causes or incidental circumstances, and the cases in which a refusal of the parties to meet has figured as the principal cause of the dispute have been comparatively rare.