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Britain's
Coal Loss
Growing
AAP And Our Special Representative
LONDON, Sept. 9.
The coal strike situation
again deteriorated today, with
44 pits idle —six of them not
previously affected — and
4it.O(Jo minors involved. Now
in its fifth week, the stoppage has
cost the country 350.000 tons of
coal.
However, according to Reuter,
the Grimetborpe colliery strikers
have weakened in their resolve to
stay out until the National Coal
Board lifts its order requiring them
to work a larger coal face stint.
Following the accusation yester
day by the secretary for the Na
tional Union of Miceworkers (Mr.
A. Homer) that their attitude could
cause the Government's downfall,
the men began to doubt whether
they could hold the sympathy of
the miners in the other pits who
are supporting them.
Miners" representatives in Par
liament and union officials will to
day appeal personally to the
strikers to return.
One official said:—"l am very
hopeful that we will get them all
back this week. We are getting
in touch with the men personally.
It is the only bridge we have left."
"Reactionary"
Mr. Homer, in the statement
which he made at a press confer
ence yesterday, said that the atti
tude of the Grimethorpe men was
?'reactionary and unnecessary."
"The five-day week is at stake,"
he declared. "If there Is another
coal crisis like that of last winter
it can bring down ttie Government.
And it is not only the Govern
ment's fate which is involved: it is
the country's fate."
The Ministry of Labor has pre
pared plans to deal with widespread
unemployment in case the strike
spreads to all the 137 pits in the
county, states the "Daily Tele
graph."
An official of the Ministry
stated:—"We have drawn up an
emergency plan in view of the pos
sible effect such an occurrence
would have on industries in the
area."
An official of the National Coal
Board said today that Britain had
a Eked the United States for a re
newal of lapsed licences to ship
about 145,000 tons of American coal
after the end of September.
It was not a new purchase, and
Britain was standing by th p'tn
to cut off coal purchases for
iast quarter of 1947 to savti"3bl
lars.
U.S. Views
NEW YORK, September B.—Bri
tain's economic plight is largely due
to the fact that she can no longer
produce coal profitably, according
to the president (Mr. John I*.
Lewis) and other high officials of
1 the United Mine Workers of
1 America.
Mr. Lewis lays the blame on the
' folly of both mine-owners and the
' unions, who. he declares, have op
posed the modernisation of the
mines for 30 years, the former on
the ground that it would increase
mine hazards, and the latter on the
ground that it would increase un
employment.
Asked whether it would still be
passible to modernise the British
mines, Mr. Lewis and his colleagues
said that it might now be too late.
i Mr. K. C. Adams, editor of the
?'Mineworkers' Journal," who has
travelled extensively through Bri
tish mines, says that modernisa
tion of the pits at this late date
could only be tackled at terrible
cost. It would take at least five
years to manufacture and install
the machinery, most of which
would have to come from America.
Mr. Lewis considers that Ame
rica's amazing coal production,
which sustained not merely the
United States, but the Allies, dur
ing the war, is largely due to the
fact that the miners worked a
nine-hour day and a six-day week.
"We have increased our produc
tivity per day," he states, "until
now it is six times that of British
coal, and is delivered to the con
sumers at a third of the price it
costs British consumers; yet the
miners' weekly wage is three and
a half times that of the British,
who have not had enough pay for
years.
i "The British miningpopulation
suffers malnutrition. They have
not the physical vigor to produce
coal, even if they had the incentive,
a-hich the Government has taken
away from them."
The American inhan-o heiress, formerly Mr*. Doris Duke Cromwell, sometime* aleri-riltcH a? "the riclii.-l girl in the woilil." photographed after her marriage al ihe Dominican Legation. Paris- to Senor Pnrfiriu Rubirosa. honorary charge d'aftaires al the legation. He was rerenlly divorced from the Frenrh film star Danielle Darrieux. The liriH?> ?* wartnj: a green taffeta dre£f with diamond earrings and a gold anil diamond necklace. Help
The American inhan-o heiress, formerly Mr*. Doris Duke Cromwell,
sometime* aleri-riltcH a? "the riclii.-l girl in the woilil." photographed
after her marriage al ihe Dominican Legation. Paris- to Senor
Pnrfiriu Rubirosa. honorary charge d'aftaires al the legation. He was
rerenlly divorced from the Frenrh film star Danielle Darrieux. The
liriH?> ?* wartnj: a green taffeta dre£f with diamond earrings and
a gold anil diamond necklace.
$