OIL FROM COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 83, 8 April 1938, Page 11

OIL FROM COAL

VITAL IN WARTIME

EXAMINATION OF METHODS

OF EXTRACTION

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, April fl.

A brief debate took place in the House of Lords on the recommendations of the Falmouth Commission, which recently reported on various methods of extracting oil from coal.

The Lord Privy Seal, Earl de la Warr, agreed with other speakers about the vital interest of the question to the nation in time of war and also in time of peace. He was un*able to say what steps the Government proposed to take regarding the Commission's recommendations. He recalled that the Commission did not refuse to consider any of the processes of extracting oil from coal, provided they had reached a stage from whidh it was possible to draw economic conclusions. He added that the Government had the whole question under serious consideration, and was at the present time taking action and examining a number of methods, but he could not go into details.

"Referring to the suggestion that the country's oil supplies were no better than they were a few months ago, Earl de la Warr assured /the House that not only had service stocks gone up, but the Government had been giving attention, in conjunction with oil companies, to increasing civil works. A great deal of consideration had also been given to the rationing of oil in time of war. Progress had been made on all these questions.