Coal Supplies.

Part of Orders of the Day — Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 5 August 1941.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Alexander Sloan Mr Alexander Sloan , South Ayrshire

The hon. Member will speak for himself when his time comes, and he will perhaps be able to show me where thousands of men can be drafted into the industry. The difficulty of doing it is shown by the fact that out of 25,000 who have indicated their willingness to return, only 5,000 are on hand. It has not been indicated whether even these are absorbed. I expect that among them are the 500 which Ayrshire has been unable to take. Therefore, we are going to suffer a coal shortage during the winter.

The question is not so much one of man-power as of utilising the man-power that is at the disposal of the industry. It is also a question of utilising the machinery and of meting out decent treatment to the men and the machinery. I find myself in considerable difficulty in discussing this matter. I am the last man to wish to make personal attacks, especially on this occasion, because, of the responsible people, one is a personal friend and the other is a product of my own beautiful county, and we have a Scottish saying: Corbies dinna pick oot ither corbies' een. That cannot 'prevent my saying that he miners are not getting a square deal. They do not require to be reminded of their importance to the nation. Some years ago when my hon. Friend the Minister of Mines was appointed to his present position he attended a miners' conference at Blackpool. He told us that we were meeting not as representing an important industry, but as representing the most important industry in the country, and that we were producing the most important commodity. He produced from his waistcoat pocket a piece of coal a pound in weight and told us of the immense possibilities of energy that it contained. He said that these valuable miners of ours were producing every day that they worked 2,000 times their own energy, and that that, multiplied by the whole of the 700,000 miners in the country, meant that they were producing an immense amount of energy. We know that the war could not last five minutes if it were not for the energy produced by the miners. How it comes about that they are treated in such a scandalous fashion in many ways, I cannot understand.

The question of output production has loomed very large in to-day's discussion, and I wonder whether the people who have been discussing it are really aware of the situation in regard to the production in the collieries. Is not any attention to be paid to the tremendous fall in man-shift production? That is something for which the miners bear no responsibility at all. The miners produce the coal. It is the duty of the management to see that the coal is brought to the surface and put into the wagons. Does anybody suggest that the miners, either individually or collectively, are in any way responsible for the fall in output? In May, 1935, the average output per man-shift worked in Scotland was 25.57 cwts., and the average for the whole year was 25.38 cwts. The average for May of this year was 21.14 cwts., a fall of 4.43 cwts. per man-shift for every person working in the Scottish coalfields. Where would production be to-day if that output were restored? And let it be remembered that the men at the coal-face are still prepared to produce that amount of coal. If hon. Members have any difficulty in getting the figures, I will lend them a copy of the ascertainment for Scotland, certified by the joint accountants, for whom I am not responsible. I do not know whether the Secretary for Mines and the President of the Board of Trade are alarmed at the fall in output, but I think it is catastrophic, and all the more do I think so when I am certain that we have no responsibility for it. Let it be remembered also that the position is not static by any means; the output per man-shift is still falling, and will go on falling unless something drastic is done with regard to the organisation of our mines.

I wish that the hon. and gallant Member for Fylde (Lieut.-Colonel Lancaster), who spoke before me, had waited to hear the figures I am about to give. I will take the two months of April and May of this year. The output for Scotland in April was 2,150,998 tons, and the output for May was 2,154,029tons, an increase of 4,031 tons. It should be remembered that May had one working day more than April. To produce the extra 4,031 tons, there were 7,635 more man-shifts worked at the coal-face, but in addition, there were 7,711 more man-shifts worked under ground other than at the coal-face, and 7,646 more shifts worked at the surface. Therefore to produce the extra 4,031 tons in May there were 15,035 more man-shifts worked other than at the coal-face, and the total extra man-shifts was 22,986. Of course, that had its repercussion on production, because the production per man for April was 21.35 cwts., whereas in May it had tumbled to 12.14 cwts. per man-shift. I should like to know whether the Government can improve that sort of thing by drafting men to the mines either from the Army, the Navy, or any other source. The men who are being returned to the mines are quite incapable, and some of them unwilling, to work the shifts they are expected to work underground. It simply cannot be done. There is noreason why all the Members of this House who have left the coalmines should not go back and work in them.