WEATHER HOLDS UP BRITISH INDUSTRY

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5322, 7 February 1947, Page 5

WEATHER HOLDS UP BRITISH INDUSTRY

(Press Ass?i.—

H1GHWAYS BLOCKED

supply of coal causes concern in cities

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Feb. 6. The Ministry of Fuel states that a serious situation has arisen regarding the supply of coal throughout Britain through ihterruptions to the railways ancl coastal shipping as the result of the exceptiojial cold and gales. Fifty-sev.en ships loaded with coal and unable to leave port, and 30 which have discharged cargoes are unable to return to the loading ports. Loading appliances in South Wales are frozen up. Snow has seriously intcrfered with railway workings in the Midlands and has blocked colliery sidings in Durham and Northumherlar.l. Several farg'e collieries are unable to work. The position is particularly bad in London, where power stations normally draw the hnlk of their supplies by sea. More villages in north-east England have been isolated^s the result of a further four to six inches of snow last right. The shortage of food at farmhouses in outlying hamlets is growing more acute, and it is suggested that if the position becomes worse supplies will have to be dropped by para•hute. The north of Norfolk was caught hy the full force of the blizzard. Cromer until noon to-day was cnt off hy 10ft. snowdrifts. A 35-minute hus journey took nearly three hours. Yorkshire and Derbyshire are having their worst weather for many years. All main roads are hlocked. Alany sroads are impassahle in Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire and on ihe Welsh horder.

Most of Devon and Cornwall is # 6 lcebound. The Great North Road between Stamford and Grantham, where a huge traffic jam occurred yesterday, is still blocked by deep snowdrifts. The Automobile Association in issuing a warning* said the roads had rever heen so had. At sorpe places in Lincolnshire only the tops of telegraph poles can be seen above the ijrifts.

Fuel Shortage Results In Closing Of Factories.

LONDON, Fehruary fi. In Birmingham 5S,000 workers have stopped work ov are on short lime. Twenty-eight cotton mills at Blackburn, Lancashire, have closed Iiecause of the fuel shortage. Police, gamekeepers and volun- 4 leer search parties found no tvace of Mr. Richard Grisham and his wife, who while on holiday walked into the blizzard at Goathland, north Yorkshire, on Monday and have not been seen since. Skiers struggled to outlying farmhouses in the hope that the couple were sheltering. New drifts. 10 to 20 feet deep have now immobilised the searehers. Snow fell in London last night. R.A.F. men at a wireless station six miles south-west of London, who have heen cut off for more than two days, are waiting for aircraft to drop food by parachute. The Paris weather bureau wamed that a new "cold offensive" was threatening the city after a two-days' tliaw. Heavy snowfalls are predicted in the Ardenne and the Vosges. Italy Swept by Gales The British United Press' Rome correspondent reports sthat gales which swept Italy forced the liner Otranto, carrying war prisoners from Australia, to put to sea and stand off Naples harbour to await calmer weather. Other ships in the harbour were torn from their moorings. -Heavy damage has been caused hy floods and gales. Two men were drowned in the River Arno near Florence. The River Tiber at Rome is 30 feet above normal level. Scores of basements in the city are flooded. Snow -has hlocked many roads throughout Italy, and snow and high winds which blew down elcctric power cahle® have stopped rail and tramway systems in many areas. The freeze-up gripping most of Britain has isolated hundreds of people in Lincolnshire Wold villages for three days. Children have not had milk since Monday. Britain's "number one tramp" died at Macclesfield as the result of a brick kiln fire beside which he jwas sleeping setting fire to his clothing in the blizzard. Food By Rail and Air Foodstuffs poured hito Driffiekl railway station for loading on the Malton train, the only link with many East Yorkshire Wold villages. A porter eommented: "This is like a food special." A later message says plaii^s dropped fqod to Scarborough and surrounding villages which snow, had isolated, also to the 15 Royal Air Force men marooned for two days at Stengot wireless station, near Lincoln. Some hungry farmers set out in tractors for village shops, but snow buried their machines,. A funeral procession at New Holland, at the mouth of the Humber, hegan with a horsedrawn farm waggon carrying the eoffin, but the waggon was bogged down and hearers earried the eoffin aeross three .fields to the cemetery, the na-inister and one mourner- following them. A number of main line expresses have been cancelled. All B.O.A.C. planes flew normally. The Minister of Fuel, Mr. Shinwell, asked gas undertakings thro&ghout the country to reduce pressure until the blizzards were ended and sea anci rail transport was normal.