Coal Shortage for Ever ?
The reasons which the Minister of Fuel and Power gave the Commons on Monday for the latest coal shortage were increasing demand due to full employment, reduced output of opencast coal due to bad weather, and the fall in manpower. Against this explana- tion should be set the facts that demand is likely to go on increasing, that the production of opencast coal is bound to tail off in any case, and that a further fall in manpower is foreseeable and allowed for in the Coal Board's plans. Consequently we are not faced with a passing difficulty which can be dealt with by means of expedients. There is a permanent problem requiring far-reaching solutions. But all the Government has to offer in the way of remedies for the immediate future are a reduction of supplies for bunkers, some purchases of coal from other countries, and some consultations which are taking place with the Coal Board. This is the merest fiddling with the problem. It certainly will not be possible by such means to ffil in the ,years of pressure of demand which must elapse before the Coal Board's plan comes into effect. Nor can the Minister of Fuel and Power escape from the difficulties of the situation by saying that he prefers the present situation to the mass unemployment of miners of the pre-war days. Nobody advocates such unreal alternatives. The solution lies in getting a greater output from the existing labour force, and to argue that the existence of full employment stands in the way of that solution is to ignore- the fact that output per man-shift has only just climbed painfully back to the pre-wai level despite the impressive mechanisation of the past few years. More concentration is needed on full employ- ment in the sense of maximum output per man, as distinct from the mere avoidance of registered unemployment. And unless the Government and the Coal Board manage ts evolve a short-term plan for achieving that end we shall continue to be faced with a situation of coal yesterday, coal tomorrow, but never, never coal today..
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