A Minister Who Gambled

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 February 1947, Page 7

A Minister Who Gambled

Offices this morning were working i under conditions resembling those I during the worst of London’s blitzes. They at 9 a.m. came under the official electricity cut which continues until ( noon and again from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Work on a dull, dreary winter’s morn- I ing continues by the light of kerosene table lamps and hurricane lamps. These were used on many occasions during enemy air raids. London’s temperature at 4 a.m. to- i day was 37 degrees compared with 29 j degrees at the same time yesterday.' Bus services in parts of Northumberland were suspended early last night after many attempts to clear snowed, up roads. It is expected that the j authorities will try to clear the roads, with bulldozers to get the miners to work.

“The fuel crisis jeopardises the British motor industry’s position in the export market,” says the Daily Telegraph. “The motor trade, anticipating intense American competition, hoped to expand production in 1947 at least 30 per cent. Now it is generally felt that this is impossible.” Heaviest of Winter. Saturday night’s snowfall in London was the heaviest of the winter. Snowploughs were used in London yesterday for the first time in memory. An official said: “We have used 900 tons of salt for snow melting this winter. There is none left.” The London airport is snowbound and no aircraft have taken off or landed.

Some of the heaviest snowfalls recorded were 20in at Huddersfield, 12in at Binbrook and Waddington in Lincolnshire and at Acklington in Northumberland. Snow fell so thickly during the blizzard on the Yorkshire coast that it was impossible to see more than a few yards.

The heaviest falls in London were lOin at Hampstead’ and Bin at Clapham. Snowdrifts on lines again held up rail services in many parts of the country. A fierce blizzard over the North Sea made conditions worse in the Lincolnshire area. About 300 square miles north and west of Louth is completely cut off. Snow drifted above the lower windows of some houses. Great efforts are being made to clear the railroads in the coalfields areas. It. is expected that two days will be required to clear the road from Yorkshire over the Fells to Carlisle. Chorus of Criticism. A chorus of criticism in both the London and provincial newspapers has greeted the Minister of Fuel and

Power (Mr. E. Shinwell). He is blamed for gambling on the weather and acting too late. “He gambled on a mild winter and has got one of the severest of the century,” says the Daily Express. i Even the Daily Herald (Labour) . upbraids Mr. Shinwell for not keeping ; the public properly informed. The public, it says, were even told that i no fuel crisis was to be feared. Coastguards and volunteers dug through seven miles of snowdrifts last night to reach the sea and rescue the crew of the Grimsby trawler, Libra (221 tons), which was on fire 400 yards off the beach at Anderby, Lincolnshire. The trawler was ablaze from end to end when the rescuers arrived

at the beach. Life-line rockets would not reach the ship. The rescuers waded into the sea and dragged ashore a lifeline thrown from the ship. The crew was brought ashore by breeches buoy. The seamen were uninjured but exhausted. Lifeboatmen extinguished the fire.