BRITAIN MAY HAVE EVEN MORE SERIOUS FUEL CRISIS

Evening Star, Issue 26137, 26 June 1947, Page 7

BRITAIN MAY HAVE EVEN MORE SERIOUS FUEL CRISIS

(Rec. 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, June 25. The General Council of the British Trade Union Congress issued a warning after a meeting to-day that Britain might experience a fuel crisis even more serious than last winter unless immediate steps are taken to meet the position. The council, which met after the disclosure that coal production, in the first two weeks of June had dropped below the Government objective of 4,000,000 tons a week, decided to ask Mr G. Isaacs (Minister of Labour) to convene a special meeting of the Joint Advisory Board to discuss the situation. The board represents the employers, the workers, and the Government. The-council said the threat of a new crisis was caused by new factories coming into production, extensions to existing plant, and failure to arrange adequate staggering working hours to spread the demand for electric current more evenly. [An earlier message stated that if the miners are to reach the 200,000,000 tons target set for the year by the Government in its economic White Paper, they must produce an average of over 4,000,000 tons a week for the remainder of the year. Since the commencement of the five-day week they have produced an average of 100,000 tons more each week than they .did last year, and have increased the reserve stocks by 2,500,000 tons.. Even so. the reserves stand at just under 8,500,000 tous, which is approximately 7,000.000 tons below the minimum required before winter. During the first three weeks of the five-day week period the ■ total production, of the mines reached 3,800,000 tons, but it has now fallen to just under 3.7Q0.000 tons. It has not yet passed the 4.000,000 tons in any one week. The chief decrease in production has been in ' the Yorkshire pits, where the output has fallen hy between 30,000 to 40.000 tons a week during the past "fortnight. In Fouth Wales it has remained consistently at about 30.000 tous a week under the target of 530,000 tons set for the South Wales pits. Absenteeism in Yorkshire mines, which fell.from 17 per cent, to 10* after the introduction of the fiveday week, is now back nearly to 17 per cent.]