Cabinet to Feather deal

their union would fight Collin Summers, a surtace worker at Betteshanger pit, which is one of the three strikebound Kent mines, said that the executive's failure to back their action was a blow to the spirit of the men, but this could be lifted if they were given a lead.

Have case

'I earn only £15. I virtually depend on my wife's wages PAY AND anti-trade union legislation were major topics at yester- anti-trade union legislation were major day's full Tory Cabinet meeting. ry Cabinet meeting.

Sitting in with the usual complement of Ministers were Attorney. ¡ will General Sir Peter Rawlinson and end' Solicitor-General Sir Geoffrey Howe.

Government spokesmen later stressed that the Industrial Relations Bill would be lau :ched in the Commons before Though Ministers expressed concern about inflationary wage settlements', this • Will be interpreted as a further rebuff to TUC secretary Victor Feather's kite-flying for an agreed voluntary 12-month pay standstill in place of the legislation.

But the government may well simply be waiting for a situation in which they think they can get the best terms for a temporary deal here.

Feather, who appears privately to be eyen möre worried by the so-called wage explosion than Heath, seems in any case prepared to go to almost any lengths to avoid a governmentHence his appeal to the newspaper workers' union to reconsider its official supManagement conference in London yesterday, TUC General Council member Alan Fisher-secretary of the public employees —said that the TUC would sit down and work out a voluntary prices and incomes policy' if the government would withdraw its legislation plans.

Like the retreat of the miners' executive before Robens, the General Council's incomes-policy antics can only strengthen the Tories' hand.

The failure of TUC 'lefts' like Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones to challenge this climb-down from nothing-Feather claims to have seen them both since the pay-standstill leak, without their making any comment— is even more damning.

S Wales to stay out ry an Industral corresponden PIT-STRIKE leaders in S Wales yesterday unanimously rebuffed both return-towork pleas and allegations violence from their union's national executive.

A special coalfield delegate conference in Porthcawl today will consider plans for spreading the strike into areas which have so far failed to come out.

Following a three-hour meeting of the NUM's S Wales executive in Cardiff yesterday, area president Glyn Williams said :

'We will be appealing tomorrow that any miners with plans to return to work ought not to go back?

He also stressed that after serious consideration of the allegations that had been made, the meeting felt there was 'quite definitely . . . nc personal violence on anyone' at Thursday's London lobby of the national executive.

A total of 103,000 striking miners kept 125 pits completely stopped and seven more partially idle yesterday, according to the National Coal Board.

Despite the opposition of the NUM's leadership, four pits remained out in At Dawdon colliery -largest in the coalfield -there was a two-to-one majority in favour of staying out, and Workers Press was, told at Westoe pit that members ot the lodge committee were for reJection of the NCB's £3 offer in next week's ballot. WAITING working-class confrontation.

port for the December 8 protest strike. Speaking to the British Institute of ANTICS Powell and the Tory right wing, who want to proceed helter-skelter into denationalization and the like, will be further encouraged by these retreats.

Various denationalization plans — particularly in the transport field — were under discussion at yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

Tory backbenchers are pressing for the scrapping of Labour's 1968 Transport Act, which they regard as a blank cheque for state encroachment on traditionally private-enterprise fields.

Such moves, however, will depend on the outcome of other Tory plans - added reason for trade unionists to support the miners and fight • See 'GPO fears' and LATE NEWS, page four.

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Address Amount enclosed E ATTEMPTS by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis to revise a £250 million loan deal with the threeman Greek ruling junta has thrown the regime into crisis.

The deal - concluded last March - involved various projects, including shipping, industrial and financial undertakings, Onassis's new terms have created differences between Prime Minister Papadopoulos and Economics Co-ordination Minister Makarezos over how to reply to the request.

Onassis is seeking a guarantee from the Central Bank of Greece for foreign investors putting money into the proHe wants a sizeable increase in the price of crude oil he is to supply to the junta's refinery, plus a rise in the freight charges.

Difficulty

Observers believe that Onassis is having difficulty in raising the funds necessary for such a large investment.

He has already filed an appeal with the Greek State Council requesting the reversal of a decree which put the deal into effect in September.

This has created deep economic and political problems for the junta, which is already isolated from a section of the capitalist class linked to Papandreou's liberal Centre •. Exiled Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis hopes to establish a national resistance council of all groups-including the right—opposed to the present regime in Greece, he said in Stockholm yesterday.

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