Mr Shinwell Appeals Again

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24798, 12 February 1946, Page 4

Mr Shinwell Appeals Again

IMr Shinwell is again asking Britain’s miners to work harder. Never before has Britain more urgently needed every ton of coal that can be raised; yet though the miners are in sight of nationalisation, the goal for which they have striven- for a generation, they are, he indicates, “letting the '* country down ”. The news that Mr Shinwell is disappointed is not unexpected. It had been foreshadowed in mid-January, for instance, in his warning of “ drastic ” action to end unofficial disputes, and in his earlier statement that voluntary absenteeism nad risen in November “ slightly ” above the previous month’s figure and “ seri- “ ously ’ above that for October, 1944. Nor, as the labour correspohdent of “The Times” analysed production figures, did it seem likely in mid-December that Mr Shinwell’s target for the six months, November to April, would be attained. The November output, he observed, was 60,000 tons a week below the target level, and that rate of deficiency over the six months would leave the nation a million and a half tons short of the 8,000,001 tons extra the Minister had asked for. Unhappily, it is more difficult now than in August, when the target was set, to feel very hopeful that the appeal will succeed. One of the obstacles then in the way of increased production was the food shortage. In Russia, for example, the miner is rated as a “ specially heavy worker ”, and gets considerable extra rations of meats and fats accordingly. In Britain the extra needs of heavy workers are supposed to be provided for by canteens, for which extra rations are allowed. This worked out fairly well for factory workers, but not for miners. A miner cannot eat a heavy meal during the shift; he must eat it in the canteen, if at all, after work; and in practice the miners lived off their home rations to a greater extent than other workers. Those rations, especially in fats and meat, were admittedly insufficient for efficiency underground, and one of the first assurances Mr Shinwell gave when he called last August for extra production was to promise the miner more food. To-day, the ration of cooking fats has been reduced; and it is doubtful whether the rations of bacon and of eggs can be maintained. Certainly there will be less of them than the people had hoped to enjoy later in the year. The miners in the last few days will have been disappointed, men. Yet, in their disappointment, Mr Shinwell has told them a hard truth: “It is no use thinking of “ more clothes or food or more goods “in the stores unless we quickly “ get more coal They have heard much the same sort of truth many times during the war. They may be more disposed to believe it from Mr Shinwell than from his Conservative predecessor.