British Coalmines Suffer From Muddling

Chronicle (Levin), 5 June 1948, Page 5

British Coalmines Suffer From Muddling

Reeeived Friday, 7 p.m. LOXDOX, June 4. Fourteen months af'ter he left a well-paid jol> as a journalist in London to go down Ihe coalmines because he felt he could do more useful nationawork there, Wilfrid Brooks, a Houtli African newspaperman, has left the pits and returned to Houth Africa. In an article hi 'tlie" 'News-Uhronield AIW Brooks described wliv he abandoned hin gesture and left the coalmines. "My over-riding iuipression of one oi the largest eoalfields in Britain," he said, "has been of almost unbelievable inefficiency, tlie product of past negleci and present muddling. I have ( seen neitlier drive njr leadership . . . Week after week the story was the same — in' manv pits. Extemporisation, usually hurried and slipsliod, took the place of efl'ective maintenance and then only after action became absolutely imperative. I seldom saw a maintenance job really well done. "The phrase, 'Don't you know equipment is short?' was justified, but like its sister phrase, "Don't you know there 's a war on?' covered many sins. "

Diseussing the lack of leadership m the mines, Mr. Brooks says many officials under preseirt conditions canno t maintain diseiplinary power. Some officials try to emplov the "big stick" but usually with disastrous results. As a result t'he majority take the easv line, placate the difficult men, authoriso extra pay whether justified or not, and shrug their shoulders. "They are the victims of lack of opportunity and trends beyond their control," says Mr. Brooks. . He -found many miners have now little faith in ,the Coal Board and overlook its achievements. On the one hand there were references to the "old gang" still being in power, and on the other hand none too polite references to former trades union officials with comfortable Coal Board posts. He found ideological fervour dead but that the Government 's social measures had produced a stubborn loyalty to the Labour Party. Air. Brooks concludes hy paying a warm tribute to the commonsense, kindness and hospitality he encountered among the people of the eoalfields. "I shall never forget the grand people living there," he says. - ' But I was shocked to see in what conditions many thousands of deceni British people were living and working even today."