Coal Supplies On Move

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 February 1947, Page 5

Coal Supplies On Move

A big fleet of coal ships, which has been stormbound t'or many days, is now on its way south to London. Coal supplies are also on the move on the railways. “The ccal must get through. We sail with the tide.’’ This was. the unanimous decision of the captains of 52’coal-carrying vessels which sailed j from north-east ports yesterday to relieve the coal famine in London. . The Daily Mail, reporting their departure, said they went out from Hartlepool, Blyth, the Tyne, and the j Wear carrying 100,000 tons of coal.) Another 80 ships are waiting the chance to leave port, and 26 arc loading. Unemployment Figures The Ministry of Labour announced that unemployed registered for unemployment benefit in Britain at] February 11 totalled 612,000. The Ministry estimated that 1,200.000 additional workers, “stood off’’ through the emergency cuts, have not claimed the dole. The closing of motor factories is causing a weekly production drop of nearly 7000 cars and 3000 commercial vehicles, representing a monthly export loss of £3,250,000. The national joint industrial council of the hosiery industry decided at Leicester to suspend the guaranteed week of 36 hours for all operatives, affecting 50,000 Midlands operatives. Beer stocks that big breweries hold in the areas where fuel supplies have been cut are dwindling rapidly and some will be exhausted in a fortnight. Parts of England, even if coal and electricity are available by that time, will be dry for two to four weeks. An official of the Brewers’ Society in London said he would be surprised if any brewery had coal stocks for more than a week. Breweries mainly depended on coal, a few on oil and one or two on gas. Tobacco Factories Cease Five tobacco firms have ceased production because of the power cuts and wholesalers predict a shortage

oi cigarettes. Shoplifting has increased in a number of big Croydon stores since the electricity cuts because the semidarkness of candle light has made shop detectives’ tasks difficult. Snow cutting squads of Royal Engineers cut through to the Yorkshire village of Huggart, which had been isolated for six days. According to a Washington message, Captain Granville Conway, the special “expediter” appointed by Mr Truman to hurry coal and grain shipments to Europe, advocated the diversion to Britain of some American coal now going to Europe. “I think it not only feasible, but proper,” he said. He added that 1,220,000 tons of American coal had gone to Europe in January alone. Captain Conway said the dollar expenditure involved in paying for the diverted coal should be considered in the light of the loss of dollar exchange, already resulting from the inevitable slackening of the British export drive. Coal for British Ships British officials in Washington said last nignt that arrangements had been made for the “double bunicering” of nearly all British ships coming . to American ports. Double bunkering, which was practised during the war under lend-lease, means that British ships will take on enough coal to take them to Britain and return to America. The crew of the British steamer Hartington are still striking at Portland, Oregon, as a protest against taking a cargo of American coal to Singapore instead of to England. The i British Consul said to-day that the I ship could not be diverted because ! it would not reach the British Isles ! in time to relieve the coal crisis. Coal ; was needed in the Far East to bunker ■ ships carrying food to England. I One member of the crew said' “We I took what we thought was the right action and will continue to strike, although we fully expect deportation.”