Source: Examiner
URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60999520
Date: 10/02/1947
Event: "Nearly two thirds of Britain's industry will be paralysed"
Credit: Examiner, Trove (National Library of Australia)
EXAMINER - FEB 10, 1947
POWER CUTS PARALYSE BRITISH INDUSTRIES
Catastrophe, Says "The Times"
LONDON (A.A.P.).-Nearly two thirds of Britain's industry will be paralysed when the unprecedented electricity cuts, announced on Friday by the Minister for Fuel (Mr. Shinwell), come into force this morning. "The Times" comments : "No words are needed to amplify the catastrophe." Only what are defined as "essential services" in London, the south, eastern and the midlands areas will be given electricity all day. Domestic consumers will have power for three hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.
Mr. Shinwell said yesterday: "If we hadn't struck this blizzard - which I am told is the worst for 50 years - we might have got through, provided there was economy in consumption." He was not prepared to say how soon conditions would return to normal.
"Must Help"
"If industrial and domestic consumers decline to co-operate in this emergency, we will find ourselves, in the next 10 days, in a condition of complete disaster. We shall not have any fuel at all for electricity." A chorus of criticism in both the London and provincial press greeted Mr. Shinwell's announcement on Friday. He was blamed for gambling on mild weather and acting too late.
The Attorney-General (Sir Hartley Shawcross) said yesterday: "If we don't succeed in overcoming this situation and improving coal production, the Labour Government will fail, and there will be an end to any idea of Socialism in our time. The country is facing a situation as serious as in 1939-40."
Reuters office says that four million will be thrown out of work when the four main industrial regions are deprived of power. The Nuffield organisation has already announced that 25,000 employees will be without work this week.
Can Refuel Ships
The Ministry of Fuel has announced that the bunkering of ships sailing from the United Kingdom will now be permitted. However, as also announced on Friday, the prohibition on coal exports will remain. Reuters financial editor (Mr. Robert Campbell) says the major calamity is external - in the effect on Britain and Europe of the coal export ban. However, he says, this shock will probably tip the balance in favour of admitting the foreign workers Britain so desperately needs.
SWEPT BY SNOW STORMS
SNOWSTORMS again swept Great Britain at the week-end. A high easterly wind whipped snow off the hills to form drifts on the railway lines. These drifts threaten serious hold-ups in the coal arteries from Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfields. London had four inches of snow oh Saturday night - the heaviest of the winter. The fall was heavier in outer districts and a fierce blizzard swept over the North Sea. Snow ploughs were used in London yesterday for the first time in memory. An official said: "We have used 900 tons of salt for melting the snow this winter. There is none left now." London Airport was snowbound and no aircraft took off or landed at the week-end.
In Germany
FRANKFURT.- As a result of the acute coal power shortage, 80 per cent of the factories in the American zone have been closed. It is estimated that 250,000 workers will be idle. Reports from all European capitals indicate that the freeze is not easing.