I can say from my own practical experience during the war that the munitions industries could not have been conducted without the expert services rendered by the Labour Exchanges. As Chairman of the Clyde Dilution Commission and of the Tyne Dilution Commission, as Commissioner for Dilution on the Mersey and in Barrow-in-Furness, as Director of Shipyard Labour, I worked in the closest touch with them. Their officers were invariably men known to, and respected by, local employers and Trade Unions, and possessed a complete grasp of district labour conditions. The work they did in the early days of the war, both in connection with the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty, in settling labour differences, is as notable as it is unknown. They formed the nucleus on which the local labour staffs of the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty were ultimately built up. CHAPTER XIV GOVERNMENT LABOUR POLICY FOR THE COAL INDUSTRY Pre-war Conditions—The South Wales Strike of 1915—Government War-time Control—The Sankey Commission—The Mining Industry Act, 1920—The Strike of October 1920—The Strike of April 1921—The Failure of Part II of the Act of 1920—Royalties—Summary of Government Policy. Pre-war Conditions The relationship between employers and employed in the coal industry has been more profoundly modified during the war than in any other great national industry. Before 1914, there existed the Coal Mines Regulation Acts, 1887-1908, and later the Coal Mines Act, 1911, which consolidated and re-enacted with amendments many earlier Acts dealing with employment in mines, payment of wages, and other matters affecting mining. The Act of 1908 limited the hours of work underground to eight per day exclusive of one winding. By the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act, 1912, provision was made for the fixing of minimum rates of wages for miners in each mining district by Joint District Boards of mine owners and miners. Before the war, and indeed up to September 1917, wages were expressed at varying percentages above district basis rates, which had been fixed at various times in the different districts. In one district, Durham, the percentages varied with the selling price of coal. This system was introduced into Northumberland also in 1914. A similar system was at one time in operation in South Wales, but had been abandoned before the war. In October 1912, the Miners’ Federation adopted the Nationalization of Mines and Minerals Bill for constituting coal-mining a Government industry to be worked by a Government Department. Then came the war. The South Wales Strike of 1915