Foreign News: Coal: A Dilemma

Once again last week the House of Commons faced Britain's knotty coal problem. The need for coal continued to increase; its production kept on declining. Now tubby, furrowed, bespectacled Labor Minister Ernest Bevin proposed to send civilian and military conscripts selected by lot into the mines. This, the members recognized, was no solution. At best it was a desperate stopgap effort. It might produce more coal; it would also create more dissatisfaction. At week's end the first lottery drawing for the draft was postponed.

The Spectre. Gnarled, cheerful Jim Tweedy, who has spent 60 of his 71 years in the mines, put...

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