Italian Miners ?
SIR,—Regarding the shortage of -miners, Mr. Comper's letter does not mention the main difficulty. This is not that miners are unwilling to accept Italians, but that Britons are unwilling to accept mining. Too few of us will consider a job which is not only crude, filthy and dangerous, but also, in relation to bow most of us value our lives, under- paid. The official propaganda, motivated by the old-fashioned, deni- gratory view of society as a mass moved only by the whip or the carrot, stressed the material attractions of -coal-mining, and publicised it almost as a comfortable industry. This, seemed liable to attract recruits who were, among other things, somewhat naive; and larger numbers are now leaving the industry than are entering it.
However, if millions' of Britons feel anxiety and impatience about their country's urgent need for coal, only their common sense need prevent them, age and physique being suitable, from leaving less essent:al work and entering the industry themselves. What we propose to do instead is to use men driven by despair from a poverty-strick,en land. This solution, though it would benefit the Italians, is ignoble in its intention to avoid doing the dirty work ourselves. In v:ew of this, it does not seem right to blame the miners for their attitude.—
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