UNECONOMIC MINES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 5

UNECONOMIC MINES

CLOSING DOWN URGED

A DRASTIC SCHEME

LONDON, 3rd August. A vast scheme, under which Britaia would be divided into'six units, in each of which only one colliery would be operated, is outlined by the Coal Minei Reorganisation Commission. The scheme involves the reduction of 1000 individual colliery organisations t« six amalgamations, the closing of hundreds of uneconomic mines, and the conversion of whole districts now active into derelict areas. Further, it calls for the dismissal of 100,000 miners. The "report says that the days of the easy supremacy of Britain are gone. The supply of coal exceeds'the .demand, and the vital: need of the industry is that costs should be reduced by tha concentration of productive effort. More pits ought to work at full capacity. Tho centra] sales organisation and quota system are rejected as not being satisfactory alternatives to amalgamation. The Commission is convinced that consolidation is all-important. Each group would be controlled by » central directorate, who would decide where coal. could :be best produced, would . regulate finance, and control wagons and research. The proposed, groups are:—Scotland, North-East- .England, East Midlands, Central Midlands, South Wales, and 4 few small fields which do ' not' lend themselves readily to geographical division. .