20 SEPTEMBER 1946, Page 2

Coal and Current

Mr. Shinwell's quarrel with the electricity supply companies seems to be entirely of his own seeking, and it is singularly hard to see how it can serve the general good. A representative of the companies having stated that fuel stocks were at present so low that some form of electricity rationing during the coming winter was almost certain, the Minister of Fuel and Power promptly affirmed that a statement which most people would regard as a mere proclamation of the obvious was " a lot of nonsense," and supplemented this courtesy by the declaration in a speech in Durham a day later that "a cam- paign of the most villainous character against the Government" was in progress. This is mere hysterical petulance. Mr. Shinu•ell presumably does not challenge the historic belief that bricks cannot be made without straw. Does he think it any easier to make electricity without coal—or water-power, which in this case is not available? Everybody knows that the necessary coal is not forth- coming. Figures showing the continued drop in production have been quoted again and again ; the most recent of them can be found in the official Monthly Statistics for August.; Mr. Shinwell himself. members of the newly-appointed Coal Board, Mr. Arthur Horner, secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, and other influential people have been going up and down the country urging the miners to produce more coal. There is not the smallest reason to believe that enough will be produced to meet the coming winter's needs. If the electricity companies have too little coal to produce the electricity their consumers require, what alternative to rationing, either by a Ministry order or by the companies themselves, remains?