LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often snore read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.]
THE SHIPBUILDING CRISIS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] have read with considerable interest your recent article and the correspondence regarding the apparent slackness of shipbuilding being turned out, and the question of placing the blame for this on both employers and employed. The dis- heartening position of the workmen being asked one day to do some building which has to be taken down the next, because of alteration in plans, is apparent. There is the view from the employer's point of view, which in a business like mine is to-day also disheartening. I am a colliery owner, controlling collieries in the North, and the difficulties and pin-pricks of certain Departments of the Government are very tantalizing and very hindering even to the patriotic person who is willing to do and is doing all ho possibly can in the interests of his country. As a concrete case, I may say that one day last week I had three complaints under the Defence of the Realm Act, each asking for immediate explanation. One was the selling of certain machinery to the Government; this was objected to by another Government Department because a permit had not been given, although, I understand, the machinery was urgently required, and was taken away at once. Another case was the employment
of a man coming from a neighbouring colliery; this was objected to because the colliery management 'had not found out whether he had intimated his change of address under the National Registration Act. These are small matters, but irritating. The worst case was that some months ago, owing to a very serious breakdown in one of the collieries, some machinery was ordered, and a permit received from the Ministry of Munitions. The following day this same machinery was commandeered by another Department of the Government, and we are still without this plant. I may say the loss in output because of this amounts to several thousand tons, and but for the initiative of some of our under-managers would have amounted to considerably more. In the pre-war days one ordered what material one wanted, and got reasonable delivery by anticipating one's needs. To-day that has all been stopped. Machinery and other supplies have to be got from Departments as an obligation rather than as a neces- sity, and from people who think that officialism is more important than the urgent needs of the Government.
I have not touched on the confiscation of ninety-five per cent. of our excess profits, though undoubtedly we feel it is unjust. It injures us two ways—the men are inclined to demand more from the capacious pocket of the Treasury, and it is manifestly unfair on those go-ahead collieries that had been spending freely on developing before the war. Initiative is checked by too much Government control and too little reward. I imagine the same state of affairs reigns in the shipbuilding yards, and this explains in some way the delay and drop in our shipbuilding returns.—I
Previous page
