Miners Leaving the Mines

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23495, 25 November 1941, Page 6

Miners Leaving the Mines

The Soviet Government’s spokesman, M. Lozovsky, has expressed doubts whether the British offensive in the Western Desert can be of assistance to the Russian armies in their struggle against the German invaders; and it is certainly unlikely that there will be any substantial diversion of German land or air forces from the eastern front to North Africa. There is, however, an obvious and direct relationship between Russia’s defences and the British defence system in the Middle East and India; and it is possible that within a few months German forces will be fighting British at the great Caucasian gateway to Asia Minor. Only the narrow Kerch Straits now separate the German divisions in the Crimea from the northern Caucasus, while Berlin now claims that German troops advancing along the northern shore of the Sea of Azov have entered Rostov, which commands the main line of communication between the Caucasus and European Russia. Though the latest Russian communiques do not confirm this claim, they admit that the city s outer defences have been penetrated and that there is fighting in the streets. If and when Rostov falls, two courses are open to the German high command: a double offensive against the oilfields of the northern Caucasus from Rostov and Kerch, or an eastward offensive aiming at the capture of Astrakhan, at the head of the Caspian Sea, and the complete severance of the Caucasus from the Russian economy. For several reasons, an immediate Caucasian offensive seems the more likely. Germany must be badly in need of additional sources of oil supply; the capture of the ports of the western Caucasus would complete the destruction of Russian naval power in the Black Sea; and the German high command may reckon on the battle of Libya continuing long enough to prevent the British Middle Eastern command from detaching any large force to assist in the defence of the Caucasus. Indeed, a German air offensive against the Caucasus has already begun. Novorossisk, the Russian naval base in the Caucasus, has been under almost continuous dive-bomber attacks for a week, while Russian land defences on the Taman Peninsula, opposite Kerch, have been bombed with a persistence which suggests that a land attack may be imminent. A point of some interest is that in this theatre of war the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe are now within range of one another; and some London newspapers have been discussing the possibility of the Royal Air Force assisting in the vastly important task of saving the Russian Black Sea fleet. However this may be, it is at least clear that the defence of the Caucasus, now the most vital land area of the war, is a problem requiring the closest co-ordination of British and Russian strategy and the closest co-operation between the British and Russian military leaders immediately concerned. For several weeks past there have been rumours that Britain will assume full responsibility for the defence of the southern Caucasus, that a joint Anglo-Russian Caucasian command is being created, and that Australian troops are ! already in the Caucasus. German propaganda agencies, it may be suspected, have had some hand in circulating these rumours; and it is not in the least likely that the British Government will assist the German military intelligence by confirming or denying them. Silence does not meafi that the problem is being neglected. Nevertheless, it is difficult not to be disturbed by occasional hints that Britain and • Russia are not as closely associated in the conduct of the war as they might be. M. Maisky gave such a hint last Friday when he said that “if” Britain and Russia achieved full collaboration, “all difficulties could and-would be re- “ moved,” The word “if ” is ominous.

The report from Greymouth, printed yesterday, that “a good number” of men have left their jobs in coal mines in that district for other work is difficult to reconcile with the official support given by the Minister for Labour a few days ago to the policy of preventing the transfer of labour from essential industries. Coal mining is in the front row of essential industries in the Dominion in this war. Apart from the likely effects on production, which are important enough, the consequent reshuffling of jobs among the remaining miners can only provoke discontent in an industry which has already suffered excessively from labour troubles. The men now leaving the mines are, naturally, those on the lower income scale. Most of them are truckers and shiftmen, who are paid day wages, in marked contrast to the hewing contract rates paid to miners on the coal faces. Whenever’the mine loses a day, shiftmen and truckers lose a day’s pay. Unlike the men on the face they cannot make it up' by working harder on the days the mine does work. For some time truckers have been agitating that they, too, should be on contract rates. The jobs of those truckers and shiftmen who leave the mine will have to be filled; and some of them will be filled by what must be, in effect, the demoting of miners on the face. The newest of these, that is, those most recently admitted to contract rates, will have to go back to .their old work as truckers and shiftmen. Such a change is almost certain to be strenuously opposed by those affected. The Minister for Labour is also Minister for Mines. This latest development on the West Coast coal fields gives him a double responsibility. He has so often insisted on the need to Increase coal production that he cannot look on, inactively, while skilled labour leaves the pits. Some of the men are reported to have gone to “more congenial employment” and others to seasonal jobs. In,either case, the fact remains that it has always been difficult to get men to go back to mining if they can earn as much, or nearly as much, above ground. It is true that the demand for coal falls off in midsummer; but by early autumn it is growing again and to meet the needs of next winter (for electric power as much as for industrial and domestic fuel) every experienced mine worker will be needed. Many mine workers have been exempted from military service because their work is regarded as essential in the country’s interest. It is the logical corollary of such an exemption that legislation should prevent them from leaving their own skilled trade, except, of course, by permit. - f