I do not see, and I say it with great sincerity, how this proposal can be carried through in Scotland without raising, at any rate, a Wage Crisis; and there is not a Member of the Committee who desires a wage crisis in the mining industry at the present time.

I hope it will not mean a Wage Crisis.

I am certain that not a single Member on this side of the Committee would oppose Clause 9 of the Bill if he believed that the hours of work could be reduced without some kind of Wage Crisis coming in.

Meantime, we commend this legislation to the House not because we regard it as the final word, not because we regard it as the best kind of legislation that could have been introduced, not because we desire to ignore the claim of the miners for a 7-hour day or their claim for higher wages, certainly not because we refuse to respond to the claims of the mineowners—because we are only too ready to listen to them and to consider their claims and meet them as far as we may—but because 8th July is facing us only two days away, and unless this legislation is passed by Parliament within the next two days, we may be confronted with a serious stoppage in the industry with a Possible Wage Crisis which the mining industry cannot endure.

Owing to the Wage Crisis, the railways are to be allowed to do something more.

The Wage Crisis in the industry has led to a lack of confidence in the future and a lack of morale.