of the South Wales coal industry in November 1916, halting discussion of profit sharing and joint consultation as ways to solve the industry problems, although these would re-emerge after the war. After World War I Following World War I (1914–18) there was a discussion about the possibility of the mines being nationalized. Some of the owners were open to this if they could get sufficient compensation. Evan Williams, chairman of the MSWCOA and soon to become president of the Mining Association of Great Britain (MAGB), told the MSWCOA that there would inevitably be some change in structure, and "there are certain owners who think it would be advisable to accept Nationalisation. There is, to an extent, an amount of justification for this, but it must be remembered that it is not in the Nation's interests, as well as the Owner's interests, that this should be reported to." In 1921 there was a three-month lockout in the UK coal industry in response to wage reductions that were as high as 49% for labourers in South Wales. Hugh Clegg wrote in 1985, "The lockout ... became a fight to the finish, to be settled, if not by actual starvation, by the expenditure of all personal resources, the exhaustion of every source of credit, and the hunger of wives and children." The miners completely failed to obtain their objectives. The South Wales miners were involved in the General Strike of 1926, and the miners did not accept the settlement in May 1926. However there were large stocks of coal in the country, and imports from the USA and Europe started arriving in July 1926. The strong community spirit in South Wales meant that miners there held out longer than elsewhere in the United Kingdom since it was "social suicide" to return to work. Miners began to trickle back to work in October, and in growing numbers in November, although until the strike ended there were no more than 38,000 miners working in South Wales out of a total of 250,000. On 19 November 1926 the Miners' Federation of Great Britain accepted defeat and allowed the opening of district negotiations. On 30 November 1926, the South Wales Miners' Federation executive council met the Coal Owners Association and agreed to order an immediate return to work. By the mid-1920s it was clear that the coal industry was in long-term decline. In 1927 the Coal Owners