Liverpool Daily Post – Monday 11 October 1943
“Coal Sunday” Appeals To The Miners
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, at a “Coal Sunday” meting at Denaby, South Yorkshire, yesterday, said that the miner provided the lifeblood of Britain, just as the sailor connected that lifeblood with the rest of the world.
Whether Britain sank or swam depended on whether the civilian army, including miners, were prepared to do more than the civilian army in enemy countries.
Mr. Tom Williams. Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, an ex-miner, said the country wanted 4,200,000 tons of coal weekly, and was now producing only 3,800,000 tons.
Mr. J. Halford, Denaby pit manager, asked each, coalface worker to produce an extra four cwt. of coal a day.
“Pray to God and keep hammering, was Lord Winster’s advice to miners at Hoyland, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, yesterday. “We have got the food and the shipping situation right and it should not be beyond the wit of the Government get the coal situation right,” he said.
Mr. Will Lawther, president of the Mineworkers’ Federation, said that the miners had never doubted for a moment that coal was of national importance. It was others who had doubted it. Mr. J. A. Hall, president of the Yorkshire Mineworkers* Association, at Thorne, Yorkshire, ridiculed the suggestion that miners should work six _ days week and one Sunday in tour. There was no manager or agent who could say that coal output could continued at its maximum working Saturday afternoon. matter what the Government might say