Sir Albert Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, in
a letter published on Tuesday replied to a number of questions about the rationing of light and fuel. He saw no necessity for an additional allowance for domestic baking. Some consideration would be shown to "minor excesses" committed during the current quarter. (The serious excesses, we fear, will occur in the early part of next spring.) To ration the miners' household allowance of free coal would be "very impolitic," reopening a wages question. Chrdren's institutions would Le specially assessed. He would recommend the utmost possible substitution of gas for domestic coal, because gas has greater fuel value—in the proportion of 100 to 75—while its manufacture yields important by-products. It is obvious, apart from these official replies, that fuel control can be only experimental this winter.
Previous page
