N.S.W. MINERS MUST STEP UP OUTPUT, SAYS PRIME MINISTER

Grey River Argus, 7 September 1948, Page 8

N.S.W. MINERS MUST STEP UP OUTPUT, SAYS PRIME MINISTER

SYDNEY, September 6. The Prime Minister (Mr. J. B. Chifley), who is visiting the New South Wales coalfields, told the miners at Cessnock and Kurrikurri that any miner who failed to do his best was cheating his fellow-unionists and fellow-citizens. “Vote for whom you like—but for God’s sake do your best for your country,” he declared. Mr. Chifley added that far too many “petty, paltry and piffling” stoppages had occurred and that, if there was going to be a decent standard of living in Australia, the miners would have to step up production. He was ashamed, he said, when he recently returned from Berlin to find that light and power restrictions had been imposed on Sydney people equal to those of the conquered and devastated city. He had come to the coalfields, not for political purposes, but to make an appeal by placing the plain facts before the miners on behalf of the Australian peoole.