PRISONERS IN MINES

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24748, 13 December 1945, Page 5

PRISONERS IN MINES

CRITICISM BY 1.L.0. DELEGATES (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 11. The American, Canadian, and Australian delegates to the Coalmining Committee or the International Labour Office objected to-day to the principle of employing prisoners of war in coalmines. The American delegate (Mr J. T.i Jones) said: "We believe this is a form of slavery; it is morally unsound." The Belgian delegate (M. Achille de Lattre) acknowledged that immediately after the end of the war, it appeared that there was a danger of yesterday's aggressors becoming to-day's victims, and vice versa, but it was necessary to remember that Germany had drained Belgium's manpower, had forced Belgians into labouring for Germany, and had maltreated them. "Many of our mineworkers have returned from Germany," he said. "Many died, and those who returned were impaired in health and incapable of mine work." The committee approved the man* power sub-committee's recommendation that the withdrawal of prisoners from the mines should.be undertaken gradually, to avoid the disruption of vital coal supplies in European countries. Meanwhile, coalowners should not be permitted to profit from the employment of prisoners. Differences between prisoners' wages and normal wages shoUld be paid into funds for the general welfare of miners. The committee also approved the proposals for making the industry more attractive, including the payment of premiums to recruits, the provision of equipment, loans for home building, and also exemption from military service. Governments will be asked to ensure that coalmining is "no longer made an object of public prejudice." The British Minister of Fuel (Mr Emanuel Shinwell), addressing the committee, said that Britain was about to take/the first decisive step in laying the foundations of an efficient mining industry, from which other I countries could derive advantage. "Coalminers hitherto have been the most depressed class of workers except agricultural workers, in every country,'' he said. "They have been the hardest worked and the lowest paid, but now they are coming into their own. The days of cheap coal and impoverishing mineworkers have gone, and the time is coming rapidly when every coal-producing country will discover that it - can escape the problems besetting the mining industry only by placing the responsibility squarely -on the shoulders of the State.'' !