Clearly there is a danger of dearer coal for everybody.
It would be mad to take away from industry, through an increase in the price of coal, the benefits which have only just been bestowed upon it by derating. Sir Herbert summed up his criticism in certain bald questions to the Government. Would they undertake to introduce the principle of compulsion before the House parted with this Bill ? Would they make the marketing schemes and the quota temporary ? Would they secure that amalgama- tion should be carried out on the present valuations of property and not on exaggerated values ? And would they really protect the consumer ? The only justification of raised, or slightly raised, prices which we can conceive would be that only thus could the coal industry reconstitute itself for the international treatment which is indispensable. Mr. Ben Turner's answers to Sir Herbert's questions were considered unsatisfactory by the Liberals, and the Liberal vote on Thursday will depend on further answers by the Government.
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