Vesting Day

Britain prepared to cinch its social revolution a little tighter. New Year's Day would be Vesting Day, so-called because on that day title to coal mines and the cable & wireless industry would be taken from private ownership and vested in the Government.*

For the occasion, Conservatives predicted a socialist saturnalia. Under a headline, "Shinwell celebrates--with 1,000 guests," London's Tory tabloid Daily Graphic told of plans for washing down coal nationalization with highballs served on silver salvers in a paneled, specially heated room. Fuel Minister Emanuel Shin-well issued an immediate denial, announced plans for a simple ceremony in the un-paneled, unheated Ministry headquarters, which cannot hold more than 50 people. A single toast would be proposed while Shinwell presented a leather-bound copy of the Coal Industry Nationalization Act to plump, pink Lord Hyndley (rhymes with kindly), who will run the mines as National Coal Board Chairman. Afterward Lord Hyndley, 63, would climb to the roof of his Berkeley Square office building and hoist the Coal Board's new flag (royal blue with "NCB" in white block letters).

Nationalization would be marked by similar flag-raising ceremonies in coal fields throughout Britain. In Wales, where Communism is strong among the miners, the blue flag would be unfurled to the accompaniment of The Red Flag.

The average Briton would raise no flag on Vesting Day. As he woke in his frigid bedroom, shaved in icy water and ate a cold breakfast without the cheering "hot cuppa tea," he wanted his socialism translated into a fuller coal scuttle. Even his ingenious efforts to circumvent the coal shortage were backfiring. He heated his rooms with electric "fires"; result: an overstraining of the nation's electrical plants, and periodic interruption of power supply. He tried to warm his water with gas by using strange, traditional, Rube Goldberg contraptions called "geysers" (pronounced geezers). Result: a critical nationwide lowering of gas pressure.

Hand-to-Mouth. British industry was in no holiday mood, either. "If there is any letup in production," said Sir Stafford Cripps of Britain's export-or-die program, "we shall come a cropper in a year or two." The export goal, 175% of 1938 volume, had looked close last July: exports were up to 120%. But by November they had slipped to 117%. And last week, due to lack of coal, the export program was well on its way to coming a cropper.

Foundries and factories all over Britain were shutting down. London Midland & Scottish long-distance trains were running three to four hours late because the coal supply was irregular and of poor quality. In Sheffield 20,000 steelworkers had an enforced six-day Christmas holiday while firms scraped together enough coal to carry on. Day after the holidays, absenteeism reached 80% in one mine. But 95% of the men showed up that night to collect their pay. The hum of industry was turning everywhere into a mournful wail: "We have only three days' stock of coal in hand."

Work in Overcoats. Brusquely the Austin Motor Co. announced that it was shutting its Birmingham plant indefinitely because of fuel shortage. Realizing that this meant a layoff of 16,000 workers and a paralyzing blow to Britain's export trade, Manny Shinwell's Fuel Ministry rushed special truckloads of coal to the Austin plant, where working parties stood by night & day to unload them. The company, warning its workers to "be prepared to work in overcoats" because of a cut in factory heating, prepared to reopen.

Determined to keep essential factories going, the Government last week ordered a 10% cut in coal allocations for hotels, restaurants, theaters. Even the important aluminum, copper and lead industries had to take a 5% cut. On the eve of Vesting Day, even the most rabid Socialist was ready to agree with Laborite Herbert Morrison's sober warning that "nationalization will not itself produce one extra truck of coal."

* Actually, the cable & wireless transfer would be little more than a formality. Cable & Wireless Ltd., which has had a monopoly in telecommunications, will continue to function as a corporation, run by a Government board.

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