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Rh book was written before the outbreak of the Great European War; and some of my rather confident predictions may be vitiated, or at least postponed, by this tremendous and unexpected calamity.

My thanks are due to so many persons for information and assistance that it is hard to name them. In particular I must express my indebtedness to Professor Galloway, whose kindness I have much appreciated. Colliery owners and managers have always answered my questions with the greatest readiness and frankness. Amongst the miners' representatives I am indebted to Messrs. Robert Smillie, J.P., President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, Thomas Ashton, J.P., William Brace, M.P., Tom Richards, M.P., J. Winstone, J.P., George Barker, Vernon Hartshorn, J.P., Hubert Jenkins, Edward Gill, T. I. Mardy Jones, and several others. To Mr. David Evans, of Cardiff, I am indebted for much of the information connected with the sale of coal and with shipping; and I have had much extremely valuable assistance in collecting information and statistics and in seeing the book through the press from Mr. Edgar L. Chappell, Secretary of the South Wales Garden Cities Association. Other friends also have given generous help.

To the Business Statistics Publishing Co., of Cardiff and Newcastle-on-Tyne, who issue the South Wales Coal Annual and the North Country Coal and Shipping Annual, I am also indebted, not only, in common with the general public, for these excellent annuals,