Train go-slow amid economic crises

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33407, 13 December 1973, Page 1

Train go-slow amid economic crises

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, December 12. Train drivers today began industrial action, and added a potentially disastrous dimension to Britain’s ever-deepening economic crisis.

The first effects of the go-slow by the nation’s 29,000 train drivers will be felt by city commuters, especially in London, where rail services will be hardest hit.

But the most serious consequences of the ban on overtime and rest-day workingcaused by the Governmentrun Railway Board’s refusal to grant a pay claim—will come when freight services are affected.

The railways are carrying 75 per cent of the reduced coal stocks now reaching power stations and a third of the power stations’ heavy oil supplies. Coal supplies have been severely curtailed by a miners’ overtime ban; and one expert asserted yesterday that power stations’ winter stocks of fuel would run out in a matter of weeks. Emergency The power stations are already feeling the pinch. Yesterday, there were electric-power cuts over large areas of England, cuts which the authorities have warned will become more and more frequent. Added to this gloomy picture are the Arab oil cuts — and the fact that yesterday the pound sterling fell to yet another all-time low against the United States dollar, because of worries about Britain’s industrial situation.

In an attempt to combat the crisis, the Government will today introduce a new emergency proclamation to

extend its State of Emergency powers which already have been in effect for the last 30 days. Informed sources said that the proclamation will give Ministers powers to requisition vehicles, property, or land and to bring in troops to move essential supplies. There is also speculation that the Government is considering urgent budgetary measures, including heavy increases in petrol and oil taxes. Grave warnings When it became clear yesterday that the train drivers would not be persuaded against their goslow, the Government immediately took fresh action to conserve electricity. An order went out to reduce all lighting in offices, shops, and public places by half. It was decreed that heating in most workplaces must not rise above 63deg. F. (18deg. C.). There were grave warnings of a perilous future from some of the country’s most eminent industrialists. Sir Michael Clapham, president of the Confederation of British Industry, said that Britain was facing a test “such as

we have not faced since the spring of 1940.” He added: “There comes a moment in history when people should wait for leadership no longer but rise up and demand to be led on the path they know they have to tread.” Sir Michael Clapham’s rhetoric received full frontpage treatment in every national daily newspaper, with splash headlines such as “The Battle of Britain”; “Britain at Bay”; and “We’re in it up to our necks.”