"Dear Friend . . ."

On New Year's Eve, laughing crowds in London's Piccadilly Circus, restored to its prewar dazzle only 18 months ago, gave a full-throated rendition of Auld Lang Syne. The New Year did not stay welcome for long. Last week, with housewives grousing over the latest cut in the meat ration (eight ounces to four ounces weekly), Piccadilly's neon lights were doused by a coal shortage.

The government ordered advertising signs throughout the country switched off, begged the public to save gas & electricity, suspended 3,854 passenger trains. Philip Noel-Baker, Minister of Fuel & Power, pleaded in a radio address: "Put the kettle on before, not after, you light the gas. Don't boil more water than you need. Keep the lid on the saucepan while you're cooking. Try to use your electric heater for half an hour less every day . . ."

Grim Memories. Long-suffering Britons hastened to obey. The warning revived grim memories of the freezing winter of 1947 when the coal strike paralyzed industry and transport, threw 4,000,000 out of -work, sent overcoated millions to a long diet of cold food.

Britain's 1950 coal output set a postwar record of 216,301,100 tonsbut it still fell 1,700,000 tons short of the nation's needs because of the soaring demand for power for the booming export drive and rearmament. British miners, dissatisfied with pay and conditions in the nationalized coal industry, were not giving their best. Thousands of them, tired of the dirty, dangerous work, quit to join the expanding armed forces or to take better-paying jobs in other industries. In 1950, the mining force fell from 708,900 to 688,600; absenteeism and labor disputes climbed.

Bargaining Agent. To strike at the heart of the problem, Prime Minister Clement Attlee on Jan. 3 invited the 27-man executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers to a conference at 10 Downing Street. Because four or five members of the executive are Communists, including N.U.M. General Secretary Arthur Horner, Attlee did not appeal for more coal for defense; Horner was primed to resist any such plea. Instead, Attlee's Colonial Secretary, ex-Miner Jim Griffiths, gave the executive a comradely pep talk, said the government wouldn't let the miners down. At meeting's end, Attlee promised to redress the miners' grievances in return for their pledge that they would try to dig 3,000,000 extra tons of coal by April.

Last week, with the promised pay. increases, an extra week's vacation (to start in 1952) and a new pension scheme under their belts, Britain's miners set out to redeem their pledge. To give them added zeal, every miner in the country got a letter starting "Dear Friend," printed in a reproduction of the Prime Minister's handwriting. The letter said: "The nation looks to you; I am sure you will not fail . . ." It was signed "C. R. Attlee."

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