18 FEBRUARY 1938, Page 38

THE Gas COMPANIES AND Co.

Gas company chairmen have been unanimous in condemning one feature of the new Coal Mines Bill, and Mr. Frank H. Jones repeated the grounds for objection at this week's meeting of the Wandsworth and District Gas Company, The dividends of the gas companies are subject to statutory control, yet their main source of manufacture—coal—is being given monopolistic powers, without any control of the amount of profit which may be earned or distributed. He foreshadowed that from 1938 onwards they would be unable to recoup in higher coke prices the additional cost of coal.

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