COAL SCHEME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1942, Page 3

COAL SCHEME

APPROVED BV BOTH HOUSES IN BRITAIN BIG MAJORITY AGAINST AMENDMENT. SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS WINDS UP DEBATE. (British Official Wifeless.) RUGBY, June 11. The debate on the Government’s coal plan concluded in the House of Commons when an amendment by Mr James Maxton (1.L.P.) was defeated by 309 votes to 8, and the proposals of the White Paper were carried without a further division. Mr Maxton’s amendment condemned the Government scheme for reorganisation of the mining industry as being framed with too great regard for the private interests of the coal owners and too little appreciation of the hardships of the workers in the industry. Winding up the debate, Sir Stafford Cripps, Leader of the House, said that the issue raised by the amendment was quite straight—a clear issue of nationalisation, In other circumstances and at other times it might be that some might take a different view on that issue, but the present scheme was provided to deal with the immediate situation of how they could get the most production from the mines. The House of Lords adopted the Government’s coal scheme. A conference of the Miners’ Federation accepted the executive’s report on wage claims. The conference did not endorse unofficial mine stoppages, and sent a message to the men involved in stoppages that it was their duty in this hour of the nation’s need to continue working, pending