§ 31. Mr. W. THORNEasked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been drawn to the statement in the Press that on 3rd November last the price of tin (standard cash) was £273 per ton, and that it rose by rapid stages to £423 per ton on 25th February and is still over the £400 limit and stands at a figure higher than tin has over reached in its history; that the position in Cornwall to-day is that the miners are not being paid a fair rate of wages compared with the increase which other branches of workers are receiving; whether the Industrial Council of the tin trade has had before it demands for increased wages for over a month and has come to no settlement; whether the return of tin miners' wages in the February issue of the "Labour Gazette" only reveals average weekly earnings of £2 6s. 6d. per man per week; and whether, in view of this apparent refusal of the tin-mine proprietors of Cornwall to pay their men an adequate wage, he will, in view of the profits now being made, at once set up an Industrial Council inquiry?
§ Sir R. HORNEI am informed that negotiations are proceeding between the Tin Mining Employers' Federation and the Workers' and Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Unions, that an offer of certain increased wages has been made to the unions, and that a ballot on it is taking place. In the circumstances I do not think my Department should intervene in this matter at the present stage.