ELECTRICITY CUTS HALT PRODUCTION AND THROW NEARLY 2,000,000 OUT OF WORK

Chronicle (Levin), 11 February 1947, Page 5

ELECTRICITY CUTS HALT PRODUCTION AND THROW NEARLY 2,000,000 OUT OF WORK

Press Assn.-

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Received Tuesday, 10.30 a.m. LONDON, February 10. The thaw has begun in Southern England and is spreading north. There was brilliant sunshine in some places along the south-west coast today, but the Air Ministry warns that another eold snap is coming. Sunshine and warmer temperatures continue in France. The weather is milder in Germany, but uhe temperatures aie still below freezing point. Berlin hospitals are overcrowded with pneumonia cases. More than 40 degrees of frost were recorded in Moscow. A Swiss aircraft flew through be moved. Even then it froze again blizzards today tO drop food to 2200 en route necessitating breakmg up whifVh is airam.

lllllcL Ulbctil Lo UJ. xiiixuuiiAu, ~ isolated by the weather. Production Stopped London worked by candlelight and the wheels of production in the broad strip of England's industrial heart, from the south-east to the Midlands and as far north as Cumberland, stopped when power cuts • were imposed this morning. The Evening Standard, in a front page streamer, exhorted the leaders, "Remember, Britain's future is at stake — pull together." Electricity undertakings, unable for technical reasons to regulate supplies between essential and nonessential consumers, have put customers on their honour to switch out their lights between the prohibited hours. Early reports from the Central Electricity Board suggested that the plan is woi'xing well. It is estimated that between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 workers throughout tlie country have been thrown out of work, and one tliird of the nation's industry is idle. Thousands of men and women did not know whether their factories were closed and reported for work as usual. Most of them had to go liome again. Noiices posted outside many factories told them when to report back for further instructions. Workers Queue Up Fog and slush from the melting snow added to the gloom of workers who queued up outside the labour exchanges in London looking for alternative work. Big London stores and essenliai undertakings continued to work. They supplemented the few electric lights with candles and hurricane lamps. The only place in the city where people could get unlimited warmth was tne underground railway system. A mother with three children said: "For a few pence we can ride round and round the inner circle of the railway. It kc-eps the children warm and amused and I have enough light to read a magazine." The Government has decided that no electricity wili be avaijable for greyhGund racing throughout the country. Ice Seals Seaways One of the coLlest spells ever experienced has stopped all shipping around the coast of oweden, says Reuter's Suockholm correspondent. It was 56 below zero in some parts of the country. The sound between Sweden and Denmark is solid ice and the Baltic is freezing over. At least twenty ships are frozen fast around the Swedish coasts. Berlin Hospitals Crowded Reuter's Hamburg correspondent reports that more than ,100 people have already died of cold in Berlin. There are 350 in-patients and 25,772 cut-patients with frost symptons in the Berlin hospitals and 1000 iii-pa:ients with pneumonia. All Frankfurt's cinemas, theatres and schools are closing today because of lack of fuel. The British United Press' Turin correspondent says the Fiat works, one of the largest motor factories in Europe, are closing tomorrow for tweive days owing to lack of electricit;/. The Daily Telegraph's Vienna correspondent repor'ts that almost all industry in the British zone has been at a standstill since December through lack of fuel and lack of waterpower as a result of the freezing. There has been no domestic fuel for several weeks and since December 13 there has been an average of 17 degrees of frost which is 15 below the average of the past 75 yea.s. Snow ramparts are six feet high in the stiwets.