AUSTERITY TO CONTINUE

Chronicle (Levin), 10 July 1948, Page 5

AUSTERITY TO CONTINUE

(N.Z.P.A.—

■Reuter.

Bevin Reminds Miaers That People Employ Them

CoDuriaht)

Reeeived Friday, 7 p.m. LONDON, July 9. A warniag that, despite Mafshall aid, Britain wiil -" continue With austerity, ' ' ,was given by Mr. Brne^t Bevin when he .addressed -the conference . of " the National tBiion oi Mineworkers. ' are not goihg to have a ttighfh debauch," he added.' "We takeMarshaH aid in the same spirit in whieh We are going to ttse it— wisely." Mr, Bevm also appeal ed for ah addr tional weekly output of deep mined coal of . 200,000 tOns weekly — eqnivalent to another 19,900,000 tons yearly over the Government '» target. This sus.; pi-ised Lord Hyhdiey, who was present and who later said he did not know o! the - offieial Government demand to raise the target. Mr, Bevin indicat.ed that he wanted inereased coal both for : direct export and for' llom¥ factories to aid the export drive. The honoui- of the working people, he deelared,. had been pledged to f'uJfii the underfaking made in- the bilaterat trade agTeemenfes negotiated last yeai and there should be deveioping a new conception of 'tliq whole British people managers and men alike, as lnep'tber.s of one great trade union. He did not thi-nk they should regard themselves as being employ ed by the Coal Board. The public wefe the employers and the Board were the fnanagers. If the job were not ddne well, it was the British public who would suffef -and the miners also as members Qf the pub'lid Nationalisation by itself dould not give the miners anything but it gave them the means hy whieh they could straighten things ' out without punishing the British people or punisriing themselves. There were murmurs of approyal •from the delegates when' Mr, Bevin ■said tHat if the working people want to play a bigger part in tlie Control of their lives and their industry,. the union would have to take tlie respo'nsibiHty itself in the awkward aii.d unpleasant deeisions that had to be made. Deseribing the eeonomio eonditions lvhich led to the signing of the biIateral trade agreements after the crisis last July, he said they had set the worker to provide coal, railway engines, textiles and.so on, to- pay for the food they had reeeived. He came : to ask; them to aeeept that obligation:in the same spirit as ir their. generaf seeretary had signcd a wages agreenient, • ... - ■; One 'important deci?ion - reached by the conferfence isvfhat"4here shatl ;hp » closed shop throughout the mining in dustry and that no nan shall be em iployed in the mines unless he is a ; ifiember of the union,., There "'are,, at present a'beut- 79,009 or 12 per e'ent.- of meh employed outside the union; ■ "