asked the Secretary for Mines if he can give the reasons why miners are receiving low wages while the price of coal to the consumer is so far above pre-War levels; and if he has the figures to show what factors prevail to cause such wide divergence between pithead prices for coal and the cost to the consumer?

In a reply given to my hon. Friend the. Member for Keighley (Sir R. Clough) on the 29th May, I gave the figures supplied to me by the Coal Merchants' Federation, giving the various items accounting for the difference between pithead and retail prices for coal. Since then there has been a considerable reduction in the retail prices in London, and I have asked the Coal Merchants' Federation if they can give me similar figures applicable to the present position. As regards miners' wages, I am to-day giving in reply to the hon. Member for Farnworth (Captain Bagley) some figures relating to the average weekly wages of miners. But the chief cause of low earnings in many districts lies in the fact that short time is being worked owing to the industrial depression.

Can the right hon. Gentleman say why it is that the consumer has to pay such large prices for coal when the miners are receiving such low wages?

If the right hon. Gentleman will look at the answer to which I have referred him, he will see that the prices for London were given, including pithead prices, railway charges, distribution charges, clerical charges, and so on, which account for the whole sum; but, as I have said, since then there has been a reduction in the price in London, and I am asking for further figures, because the old ones cannot be quite up to date.

Can the right hon. Gentleman say how a sudden reduction in the price of coal in London can be made when there has been no corresponding sudden reduction in the wages of the miners, or in railway freights or any other particular?

That is exactly the question I have put to the Coal Merchants' Federation.

asked the Secretary for Mines whether the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's refinery at Llandarcy, near Swansea, in which the Government holds a controlling interest, will be available for refining oil produced by the destructive distillation of coal should any South Wales coal owners consider it desirable to set up the necessary retorts?

I understand that the refinery, as at present arranged, will be occupied with the treatment of crude petroleum only. Any extension of it for refining oil produced by the destructive distillation of coal would be a matter for negotiation between the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and colliery interests.

Will the Government look with favour on any proposal in that direction?

I cannot imagine that the Government will have any objection to it, but I think they have already said that they do not interfere in the commercial activities of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

asked the Secretary for Mines whether his attention has been drawn to the increasing replacement of coal by oil in many spheres of industry and commerce, and the consequent permanent increase in unemployment in the coal industry; and whether his Department has made any researches into the desirability of setting up retorts in those coalfields where profits are declining and unemployment increasing, with a view to producing oil by destructive distillation?

I am aware that the use of oil is increasing, but I think it is only a small factor among the causes of unemployment in the coalfields. The development of supplies of oil from home sources by the carbonisation of coal is a subject that is now occupying the close attention of the Fuel Research Board, and, in fact, was largely responsible for its institution in 1917. I would refer the hon. Member to the Report of the Board for the years 1920–21, the second section of which is devoted to the question of low temperature carbonisation.

asked the Secretary for Mines whether he is aware that a number of miners from South Wales have recently travelled to South Yorkshire in search of employment in the pits there; what proportion have been able to obtain it; and whether he can issue a warning to men in other coalfields that there is scarcely sufficient work in the Yorkshire coalfield for the local miners?

I gather from reports in the Press that a number of miners from South Wales have recently been seeking employment at South Yorkshire collieries, but I am unable to say what proportion of them have been successful. With regard to the last part of the question, the conditions in the coalfields are, I think, already sufficiently well known to make any such warning unnecessary, but I am consulting the Ministry of Labour on the subject.