Source: Madeira Tribune
URL: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19470211.2.20&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
Date: 11/02/1947
Event: "No end was in sight to the crippling power restrictions..."
Credit: Madeira Tribune, UCR Center for Biographical Studies and Research
MADEIRA TRIBUNE - FEB 11, 1947
BRITISH COAL CRISIS DARKENS
FIVE MILLION ARE JOBLESS IN COAL NEED
No Relief Is Seen For Crippling Bans As Unrest Spreading
LONDON, Feb. 11 The government announced today that Britain was barely holding her own in a fuel crisis which had idled some 5,000,000 workers, and warned that the industrial power blackout might spread throughout the country within three days.
LONDON, Feb. 11 - The wheels of British industry slowed toward a halt today and informed sources said the deepening fuel crisis may force a shut-down of power in regions of Scotland, Wales and England thus far unaffected by the restrictions which have thrown an estimated 5,000,000 workers into idleness.
The fuel shortage confronted the labor government with a political crisis of growing magnitude. Conservative party members, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, angrily leaped to attack the government for ineptitude, inefficiency and lack of farsighted planning. No end was in sight to the crippling power restrictions which already have closed down about one-third of British industry and left homes with only restricted heating and light. With severe cold and snow persisting many quarters believed that the power black-out would have to be extended to the entire United Kingdom to build up a back-log of coal supplies.
MAY CALL ON ARMY
The government today was considering the possibility of enlisting the aid of the armed forces to try and boost coal production. British coal miners heretofore have resolutely resisted any plan to send soldiers into the pits. Whether their attitude might change in view of the crippling shortage and the continued slump in the size of the labor force available to the coal industry was not certain.
Freezing, snowy weather covered the country, and additional coal-saving restrictions were imposed. There was no indication when the emergency, described by Prime Minister Clement Attlee as on of “utmost gravity,” would end. Railway passenger service into London was reduced. Some trolley bus and streetcar lines reduced rush hour service by 10 per cent. The four great national railroads reported coal stocks sufficient for from two and a half to seven days.