The Press THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1942. British Politics and The Coal Scheme

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23661, 11 June 1942, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1942. British Politics and The Coal Scheme

The second thoughts of the British press on the Government’s scheme for the coal industry, and the publication of further details about the scheme, seem to show that the compromise reached is unlikely to satisfy either the right or the left in the House of Commons. It now appears that the Government, almost as anxious to preserve the party truce as it is to avert a serious coal shortage, is seeking to combine national control of the industry with the least possible disturbance of private rights and interests. The existing structure of ownership and management will remain as before, but on top of it will be imposed the new structure of State controls —a Ministry of Fuel and Light assisted by, and functioning through, central and regional boards, on which owners, miners, and the State are represented. Though this arrangement may raise the output of the coalmines, manifestly it is not the most efficient that could be devised. And there is at least a possibility that a notoriously inefficient industry will be made even less efficient by elaboration of controls and division of responsibility. Coal output will not approach the practicable maximum until the industry is radically reorganised; and the Government’s scheme seems to make the task of reorganisation even more formidable than it has been in the past. Moreover, the scheme has the important defect that it brings the wages problem no nearer to solution. Wages in the coal industry are low by comparison with those paid in the munitions industries and vary from one coalfield to another and sometimes from one pit to another. The miners are demanding a uniform minimum of £4 5s a week—a demand which the industry, as now organised, cannot meet. In the circumstances, the debate on the Government’s proposals may be a turning point in the history of the National Government. The Labour Party’s dilemma is a particularly difficult one. Though its Parliamentary leaders dislike the scheme, they do not desire the break up of the National Government and a return to unrestricted party warfare; and if they were faced with a simple choice between accepting the scheme and ending the political truce they would choose the first alternative. But within the last few weeks they have become acutely conscious that the rank and file of the Labour. Party have begun to find the truce irksome. The recent party conference decided by a very small margin, and only after urgent appeals by the Parliamentary leaders, to continue to observe the by-election truce. Speaker after speaker argued, and with much justification, , that if the Labour Party continued to observe a strict silence on fill vital social,and economic issues it would soon decay from within and lose its influence with the* electorate. Recent byelection successes by independent candidates seem to show that a party truce cannot keep these issues in cold storage indefinitely The Llandaff by-election has brought the first signs of a revolt in the Labour Party against the policy of its leaders, Mr Ronald Mackay, a London solicitor, has resigned from the party to contest the seat as an independent Labour candidate against Mr Cyril Lakin, the Government candidate. If he wins, the Labour Party will be forced into difficult decisions and the future of the National Government will be in jeopardy.