COAL MINES UNDER STATE CONTROL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 59, 10 March 1944, Page 5

COAL MINES UNDER STATE CONTROL

DECISION IN AUSTRALIA SOLE CCMiMISSICNER WITH WIDE POWERS Reed. 9.45 p.m. Canberra, March 9. The Australian Full Cabinet to-day instructed the new Commonwealth Coal Commissioner, Mr. Norman Mighill, to assume supreme control of certain mines on the south coast o£ New South Wales. Cabinet endorsed the handling of the present coal strike by the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, and the Attorney-General, Dr. Evatt, including the military call up of young strikers.

Under control of the Coal Commissioner the management of mines, and every employee working in them, will become responsible not to the owners but to Mr. Mighell. Ownership of'the coal will remain vested in the present owners, but the Commissioner will take over operations, and will do everything necessary to maintain, or increase, production. After the Cabinet meeting Mr. Curtin formally announced that Mr. Mighell had been appointed Coa : Commissioner, thereby vesting him with wide powers under the recently proclaimed Coal Act.

If the southern coal strike is not ended within the next fortnight numbers of industries may have to close, down, throwing thousands out of work. Among them are food storage and processing plants, as well as textile mills and foundries.

“The strike is a direct challenge to Labour’s claim to administer Australia’s war effort,” says the Sydnev Morning Herald, editorially to-day The paper adds: “This is the supreme test. Mr. Curtin talks about standing down from the Prime Ministership, but w’hat the Australian public wishes to see him do is to stand up, without thought of compromise, for the principles he has enunciated. Whatever criticism he may have earned in the handling of past coal troubles, his

sincerity has never been in doubt, and he has only to abjure the vacillations between strong words and weak action to have the nation solidly behind him.”