Gresford Colliery Explosion.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 23 February 1937.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Robert Taylor Mr Robert Taylor , Morpeth

I wish to intervene in the Debate for a few minutes on account of the great importance which it has on the future of miners. I feel that most of the points that are pertinent to the Report have been made, but there are still one or two more to which I would have liked to refer if there had been more time. After reading the Report and the evidence which I have had an opportunity of seeing in the Library, I have come to the conclusion that, although this was a most serious and terrible catastrophe, the circumstances are common to most miners. What was the position? It was a race between an explosion and the district finishing. If the district had finished, all would have been well, and the men would have gone to a new district, but the explosion came first. Those of us who are miners know the condition of the district that is finishing, and the neglect that there is to do the necessary repair work that will save men from accidents and disasters. Let the House remember that, while over 200 men were killed in this disaster, we are having one man or two men killed every day in the year for very largely the same reasons.

There is one important thing in the Report to which I would like to draw attention, and it is on pages 90 and 91, where "inspection by sample" is mentioned. I think Mr. Charlton was justified in mentioning that it was not physically possible for the Government inspector at present to discharge one-tenth of the duties which, in the inquiry, were held to be his job. Whose fault is it? I have not the time now to lay the fault at anyone's door, but the question which we have a right to ask is whether, as a result of this, the position will be remedied. Here we had a district in a dangerous condition, a district in the pit which it was clearly demonstrated was not even visited by the management, a district in which a return airway would have prevented such a dangerous situation, but that district was not being attended to or examined. What a pity the inspectors did not take that as one of the samples. In the new machine mining, with the pressure at which the pits are being worked and the men are being driven, we are becoming more and more dependent upon the inspectors.

It is of no use anybody in the House trying to believe, in a kindly and philanthropic way, that there is no victimisation in the pits. I know of men who have been walking in the streets since 1926. Let me tell hon. Members—and I wish the hon. Member for North Leeds (Mr. Peake) was in his place to hear me—that there are a thousand different ways of getting rid of a man. All those ways are being used in the various coalfields. The men are not dismissed for the thing that they are supposed to have done, but the employers simply wait for an opportunity—wait until the man has exceeded the distance between his timber by six inches, or something of that sort. Such things can very easily be found. There is one very peculiar thing in mining, and it is that you can always have good timber and pretty well everything you want when the mine is working all right, when the output is all right, when conditions on the commercial side are satisfactory; but when things are going badly, it is a different matter. Let it be remembered that we have been going through a very bad time in the mining industry, and in South Wales—it is possible that Gresford came within that category—we have been fighting for trade and low costs.

One hon. Member said that the managers should be strong-minded men. The managers in the mines are as strong-minded as anybody here when they get their jobs; it is when they come up against difficulties from the commercial side, who have been selling coal too cheap after the manager has got it for them, that they become weak-minded. The commercial side say to the manager, "We are not making profits; we have to bring the costs down." It is then that the manager becomes weak-minded, and there is no one here who would not be weak-minded in the same circumstances. Therefore, I have not been astonished when managers have come to me and said, "When the Commission on Safety in Mines reports, if any legislation comes before the House, will you promise that you will fight to put managers under the State and make them independent of the companies?" I have not been astonished, because the managers have a dog's life when things are not going well. We want more inspectors, so that if there are to be sample inspections, we shall have more samples. There should also be some measure of protection for the managers. To conclude my remarks, time and again we have reported to the inspectors on various matters in our coalfields. We have reported through the coal-miners' leaders, men of respect and integrity. These men have taken matters up with the inspectors of mines, and the inspectors have gone to carry out their inspections. In order that we may have full and implicit confidence in the inspectors, why cannot we have reports of the visits after they have been made?