Eighty years ago this week Britain is confronted by a burgeoning energy crisis.

-

 

 Take my tip! Stock now for winter. Coke coal anthracite. Save gas and electricity – through the summer and autumn - Artvee

The energy minister, extreme left-winger Manny Shinwell assured Parliament that the 5m ton gap (about one third of the amount required) in coal supplies needed for the winter was nothing to worry about. This would be the industry's first winter since  nationalisation and a key register of how well it performed in public ownership. The shortage could be dealt with by increased output from the mines and reduction in consumption. He skirted over how the former was to be achieved but did admit that 5,000 workers including "incorrigibles" had recently been "shaken out." He relied on assurances from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and did not address the question of absenteeism which was running at two and a half times the pre-war rate. Politically the government was unwilling to challenge the NUM on this problem.

Bengal suffered another major surge in communal violence in the Noakhali district between Hindus and Moslem as tension mounted in the blocked search for a peaceful path to independence. A Hindu community leader was killed and his head presented  to a Moslem leader on platter. Hundreds of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. Official figures put deaths at 445 but several thousand actually died and many more were made homeless.

Britain and newly communist Albania had disputed the status of the channel between Corfu and the mainland for some months. The Royal Navy attempted to sail six warships though the channel to assert a right of passage. Two destroyers hit naval mines which killed 44 of the crews, injured 42 and severely damaged the ships.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eighty years ago the obituary of Britain as a financial superpower is tucked in the small print of the US bail-out loan agreement

-
Image
  The US Senate approved the bail-out loan to Britain and it was granted. Not only had US law-makers been at odds over the loan but the State and Treasury Departments had been opposed. The $3.75bn (£2.2bn) loan was presented as cheap money given the 1.62% rate of interest, but, unremarked at the time, one of the terms set the headstone on the grave of Britain's status as a financial superpower. Britain agreed to allow "sterling balances" held in London to be converted freely into other currencies after a year. This money totalled  £3.5bn and had mainly been deposited by the countries of the British Empire, notably India and Egypt. Within twelve months Britain faced the prospect of having to pay out in foreign currency (in practice US dollars) one and a half times what it had just borrowed. Intentionally or otherwise, US largesse worked hugely to the benefit of Britain's former possessions. The US accepted the British proposal to the conference on the German peace trea...
Read more
-
Sunday, 2nd February 1936 The Dean of Windsor delivered his first public sermon in St. George's Chapel since the funeral.  He had been in office since 1917 and had practically grown up in Queen Victoria's court, but he was alert and not hostile to the way in which the world had changed over the years. He began with a conventional enough tribute to George V, emphasizing his simplicity. It was when he turned to the new King, that his sympathies became clearer. Edward should not an "imitation" of his father and it would be wrong to criticize him for this. His father had grown up in an atmosphere of "settled faith" whilst Edward was "plunged into the turmoil of war" and "grew up in a generation of unsettled faith and disturbed thought." The ten years that he had spent traveling the Empire had prevented him developing home ties. At one level the sermon tried to excuse Edward for his poor church attendance and bachelor status. It also hinted...
Read more

Eighty years ago abdication offers a last minute chance to save the monarchy in Italy

-
Image
    Victor Emmanuel III abdicated as King of Italy in favour of his son Umberto II. A referendum had already been called on whether to make Italy a republic and the abdication offered the only way in which the monarchy might have been saved.  The removal of Mussolini and the armistice in 1943 had been designed more to protect Victor Emmanuel on the throne, but Umberto who had exerised most of his father's powers since 1944, had achieved little to rescue the monarchy from its tarnished image.  King since 1900, Victor Emmanuel  had appointed Mussolini and actively supported Fascism, making no attempt to restrain Mussolini's destructive policies. He had become Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania when Italy invaded these countries in 1935 and 1939 respectively. Senator McFarland's amendment to the bill approving to the US loan to Britain was defeated in the Senate by 45 votes to 40. McFarland had sought to make the loan conditional of the US being granted...
Read more