Mr. Justice Sankey, the Chairman, recommended the purchase of the
coal-mines by the State on "fair and just" terms after three years, during which Local and District Mining Councils would be set up under a National Mining Council and a Minister of Mines. The alarming fall in output had convinced him that every one was not doing his best, though he did not know whom to blame. If the decline in output continued, our commercial supremacy was in danger. It was "hopeless to expect an improvement in the present atmosphere of distrust." There was "fair reason" to expect that the miners would work better for the State. The risk of the loss of incentive under the dead hand of the State was "problematic." However, Mr. Justice Sankey urged that, as State management had been attended by "serious shortcomings," the coal industry must be kept out of the hands of Civil Servants and out of the control of the Treasury, and should be entrusted to the "new class of men" who had done well during the war. This "new class," we imagine, includes the business men who volunteered to help in the great supply departments during the war. The District Mining Council would manage the collieries in each district. It would consist of a Chairman and Vice-Chairman appointed by the Minister, four miners elected by ballot, four consumers, two mining engineers, and two men knowing the coal trade. They would sit for three years and be salaried.
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