Orders of the Day — Supply

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 July 1944.

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Photo of Mr Peter Thorneycroft Mr Peter Thorneycroft , Stafford 12:00, 13 July 1944

I am afraid my appeal to the hon. Member to stop looking backwards and to look forward has fallen on deaf ears. I am sure all of us have made mistakes in the past, but the first job of the industry is to try to put its own house in order. It has to produce schemes for reorganising itself and I am not going to lay down—indeed I am not qualified to lay down—how those schemes are to be worked out. Two things will be essential. First, there will have to be a substantial reduction in the number of undertakings. I am not being dogmatic about the size of undertakings or minimum tonnages, because conditions vary widely throughout the country, but I think that, on balance, there has to be some substantial reduction in the number of undertakings, and there has to be a very extensive programme of mechanisation. Secondly, the industry must have a chance to prepare these schemes so as to get them to work as soon as possible, and, finally, when, and not until—and I emphasise that—reorganisation schemes have been prepared, then I think the maximum responsibility ought to be place, fairly and squarely, on the shoulders of the men who are running the newly organised undertaking.

The third thing I want to talk about is the position of the mineworkers. I do so with some hesitation, because many hon. Members opposite are much better qualified to speak about it than I am. It seems to me that the mineworker wants good wages, security of employment, opportunities of advancement and a share in the conduct of the industry, and I believe he can have all these things. I am not going to enlarge on the wage system, because it has been dealt with already. On the question of security of employment, supposing the Government hall to assess, in advance, the domestic and export coal required, is there any reason why that assessment should not be translated into terms of labour required? The hon. Member for Gower (Mr. Grenfell) referred to some form of guaranteed employment on the basis of a five-shift week of 7½ hours a shift. I want to say that I am in complete agreement with him, and have said so. It is entirely possible, in my opinion. I know there are technical difficulties about stocking coal, but they are not insuperable, and I believe we are at a stage in the history of this matter when guaranteed employment for a period of an annual assessment could be given to the workers. Regarding opportunities for advancement, there is an immense pool of managerial and technical skill in the mines. We are talking about an extension of mechanisation. It is not only machines we want, but men. I believe that, in the past, the industry has spent too little in getting hold of the best men available for these managerial and technical posts.

Finally, I come to the rather difficult question of how far the mineworkers can share in the conduct of the industry. I do not believe that any Act of Parliament or anything done in this Committee is going to secure that share. I do not believe it can. I believe it is something that can only be secured after a good deal of trial, some error and a great deal of effort on both sides. We have made a start with the pit production committees. I would like to see an advisory committee drawn from those pit production committees for each new amalgamated undertaking. If we did that, and also adopted the suggestion I made for approving schemes at the top, we would ensure that the mineworkers were represented from the top to the bottom of the industry, and that would not be a bad start, under a Coalition Government.

Those are the views which I hold. I will add this. Of the Mining Association I would say—I hold no brief for them—they have got, at the present moment, a great chance of trying to put their house in order. They will be well advised to take it. It may well be their last chance. To my hon. Friends on this side I would say that all I have urged is a policy of efficiency combined with individual responsibility, which should appeal to any Conservative. To my right hon. Friend the Minister, I say I thank him for the White Paper, but I would ask him to go back to the Cabinet and say that we have learned the brutal truth from his own lips and that now we want the answer to the problem. We feel that the time is past for this desperate attempt to make both ends meet. The time has come for a real step forward, but perhaps it is not the Mining Association, or my hon. Friends on this side, or the Minister, who holds the key to the solution of this problem. It is held by hon. Members opposite. It is a great responsibility.

Let us face the fact that hon. Members opposite believe, as they are fully entitled to believe, in nationalisation. If there is a party Election and the Labour Party is elected, and it wishes to nationalise the coalmines, presumably it will. I may describe this as a dazzling possibility. What we have to face is what we can do now under the conditions of this present situation. There are hon. Members opposite who have spent a lifetime working in the interests of the men who labour in the pits. I pay full tribute to the work done in that direction. They can help them now by taking the things that can be got at the present moment—the security of employment, the wages and the other matters I have mentioned, but I appeal to them not to sacrifice the substance for the shadow in this matter. If either party allows subservience to political dogma to cause delay now, we shall be jeopardising not only the coal industry and those who work in it, but the whole industrial structure of the nation. Let it not be said of us: Too late, too late; you loitered on the road;Too long you trifled at the gate.