Mr. Shinwell's Coal Board looks well. The vice-chairman has still
to be appointed, but the other members are without exception men who on grounds of general competence or special knowledge of the industry command general confidence. Sir Walter Citrine and Professor Sir Charles Ellis are notable examples of the former, Lord Hyndley, the chairman, and Sir Charles Reid (of Reid Report fame) of the latter. Salaries—£7,5oo for the chairman and £s,000 for ordinary members—are on a reasonable scale ; they will mean, no doubt, an increase of income for some members, but certainly not for all. The Committee's names provide a guarantee that the industry will be efficiently organised, but none at all (nor could they) that the necessary men will enter the industry or, having entered it, produce the output they are capable of producing.
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