VAST ISLANDS OF ICE FROM BALTIC HAMPER RELIEF FOR EUROPE

Chronicle (Levin), 18 February 1947, Page 5

VAST ISLANDS OF ICE FROM BALTIC HAMPER RELIEF FOR EUROPE

Press Assn.

By Telegraph

-Cbpyright

Received Tuesday, 10. 50 a.m, LONDON, February 17. There is still no indication of'a break in Britain's freezing weather, whieh has lasted a month. The Air Ministry torecasts a continuance of the eold conditions for several days. Half-mile wide islands of ice from the Baltic are floating into the Frisian Islands and Heligoland regions of the North Sea, slowing relief shipments of fuel and food to the areas of Europe cuf .off' by the month-long cold wave, says the Associated Pi;ess' Paris correspondent. Practically the wjjole of Europe, except the belt along the Mediterranean .coast, remains locked in the grip of the severe weather, and there is no prospect of an early break.

The temperature in London this morning was 26, two degrees eolder than yesterday. Berlin, Oslo, Paris and Brussels all reported temperatures below freezing point. Work Again On Snnday Miners, railway workers, ctockers and transport workers have agreed to work again next Sunday to kcep coal moving after the Government | told their unions that the fuel crisis was expected to last for at i least another seven days. Six hundred lorries and 1200 , troops of Northern Command went | into action today on the "operation of King Cole," and began moving 5315 tons of coal from 49 collieries between Nottingham and Sheffield. Northern Command has 2c 1 2 British troops, 2635 German prisor ers and 1120 Poles engagcd in snow clearing. Coa! Si««vrs fiicrease A Mh'.i ;;»» Fuel statement shows .idon power station stocks oi "oal increased by 19,000 tons yesuu'day to 1,072,000, which is about equal to a lOJ days' supply on a pre-restrictions basis. London gas stocks rose by 2000 tons. The total savin'gs for the first full week of the restrictions were 202,000 tons, which is equal to 29 per cent. of normal consumption. The Ministry of Labour states

that persons who claimed the unemployment benefit between February 8 and 15 totalled 1,136,200. An estimated additional 945,000 workers, who have been stood off, have not claimed the unemployiment benefit for various reasons. Two Factors F.or Anxiety ! Reuter says the Piime Mimsters' : special coal committee will meet tojmorrow and probably fix a date for the partial resumption of industry. [Therd will be no'cancellation of the domestic cuts this week. Two factors causing anxiety are ! the possibility of another heavy 'snowfall, which would again hamper the coal trains, or fresh gales to slow up shinping. People's Fine Spirit Men who have i. ■ Qen near a mine but' whose o vary jobs vanished in the crisis, turned up at West Midlands pits yesterday and volunteered for work, says the Daily Express. "Tell us what to do above or below ground," they said. They were all giyen surface jobs and joined the miners, producingj thousands of tons of extra coal. > Miners, dockers, seamen and rail- ! waymen working through the j weekend have keut the coal rolling I across Britain from the pits to thei power stations. The Ministry ofj Fuel paid a tribute to "the mag- j nificent work" of everybody con-' .cerned.