Glasgow archives: The real story behind the 1919 Battle of George Square glasgowtimes.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from glasgowtimes.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BATTLE FOR COAL
To win her fight for survival Britain must lick a coal crisis that’s been 20 years growing. Can she do it? Halton says yes November 1 1947 MATTHEW HALTON
BATTLE FOR COAL
To win her fight for survival Britain must lick a coal crisis that’s been 20 years growing. Can she do it? Halton says yes
MATTHEW HALTON
CBC European Correspondent
LONDON Ernest Bevin makes some rash statements, but he spoke sober truth when he said recently that 40 million tons of coal could change the history of Europe. Britain is now mining coal at a rate of less than 200 million tons a year, disastrously too little. If she could increase that production by only one fifth, by only 40 million tons a year, the British crisis would be in sight of a solution and the general European crisis sharply alleviated.
Although digging into the Gazette archives, you could be forgiven for wondering why anyone might want one. The Met Office is currently forecasting light cloud and a moderate breeze on Christmas Day. And this might come as a relief to residents who recall the Great Freeze-Up of 1947. While the first flakes of snow of this winter are yet to fall, nothing will ever surpass the amount of snow that occurred at the end of January that year. As King George VI and his family set off for the warmer lands of South Africa for several months, so the bitterly cold winds brought a similar period of snow and ice to Britain.