This voluntary machinery (i.e. permanent voluntary conciliation boards and recognized procedure for discussion) covers a number of the principal trades of the country, such as building, coal mining, iron and steel, engineering, shipbuilding, cotton, boots and shoes. Before the war, there were some other industries of considerable importance in which Conciliation Boards or other permanent machinery did not exist, presumably owing to lack of organization of the parties, e.g. dockers, carters, seamen, agricultural workers. This has to some extent been remedied during and since the war. State Conciliation Machinery Supplementary to the Whitley Councils, voluntary conciliation boards and similar procedure, which are responsible for the settlement of the bulk of the differences that arise, there exists the State machinery—on the one hand, the Industrial Court; on the other hand, the Trade Boards for poorly organized trades. The Industrial Courts Act, 1919 (which for practical purposes embodies the Conciliation Act, 1896), defines the Government’s powers of intervention in industrial disputes, such intervention being necessary in cases where the joint machinery is not adequate or where the joint machinery has failed to effect a settlement. The Act sets up a permanent Court of Arbitration,[11] to which recourse can be had by parties to industrial disputes if both parties to the dispute consent. Although permanent provision for voluntary arbitration is thus made by the establishment of the Industrial Court, it has been the policy of the Ministry of Labour, if not always the practice of the Cabinet, that trade disputes should be settled as far as possible by negotiation between Employers’ Associations and Trade Unions. When this fails or a Joint Industrial Council, or a Conciliation Board cannot arrive at an agreement, the Industrial Court is an independent authoritative tribunal to which such differences can be referred.