FOREIGN LABOUR

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1947, Page 7

FOREIGN LABOUR

BRITISH MISSION IN EUROPE LONDON, February 18. Four British recruiting experts arc leaving by air for Vienna to-day in an effort to obtain volunteer labour for the Lanacashire cotton mills, where the labour shortage is estimated at nearly 100,000, says the Manchester correspondent of The Times. The mission, which is sponsored by the Government, will tour camps for displaced persons in Austria and Italy but has no power to bring back foreign workers until full agreement has been reached between the Government Cotton Board and the employers and British operatives. The existing fuel shortage which has thrown thousands of Manchester cotton operatives out of work precludes any likelihood of immediate action, but it is understood that the trade unions do not object to a small number of foreign workers being employed subject to safeguards being arranged for their members. The Daily Mail says that as part of the Government’s long-term plans for the coal industry, ■ Ministry of Labour officials have lately .been in Germany recruiting for miners among displaced persons. They are also seeking Italians for the pits.