Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.
I shall come to that point almost at once.
The White Paper states that in 1970 the cost of this oil importation will rise on present estimates to £600 million. The Government blithely go on to say that the cost of imports is substantially less because of invisible earnings. I accept that statement. I have here some figures given by an oil company. These must be taken as very conservative figures, as they are given by an oil company which has a vested interest.
The Esso Magazine for the summer of 1964 states that in 1964 the drain on balance of payments—that is, taking the figure of £484 million for 1964—was in the region of £100 million or more. Therefore, on what I consider to be a very conservative estimate, it cost this country to import oil a net sum—and this. I think, answers the hon. Member for Barry (Mr. Gower)—of at least £100 million. Taking the statement in the White Paper that in 1970, assuming that we get the 170 million or 180 million tons of coal prophesied in the statement, I estimate that it will cost the country at least £130 million to import oil. Another pointer to this, which was rather astonishing, appeared in the Sunday Telegraph of 24th October, 1965, which stated that the discovery of natural gas in the North Sea would promise to take some strain off the balance of payments—enough, perhaps, to take us off the knife edge between solvency and insolvency.
That is the position in relation to the importation of oil. Of course, we need this oil, and we shall need more and more of it, but I am worried because we are contracting an industry producing a basic indigenous fuel which we have in abundance. In estimates made by the Esso experts of fuel requirements and resources, it has been stated that when the oil resources of the world begin to diminish—which could be in the early part of the next century—there will still be enough coal in this country to last us for many years after that.
Of course, we have difficulties in the coalmining industry. There are geological and manning difficulties. My right hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Mr. Ness Edwards) referred to the manning difficulties yesterday in his excellent speech. There are difficulties of investment. Anyone who has studied the investment that the Coal Board has been forced into from 1955 to the present time will agree that it is wholly crazy. There are also the debts imposed on the Board, first to produce, in 1968 or 1969, 260 million or 250 million tons of coal, while this year the Board has been told in the White Paper on Fuel Policy that the target is to be 170 million or 180 million tons. What crazy economics! My Government, of course, are facing up to this by altering the financial structure of the Coal Board but, surely, with such indigenous fuel we have a prize well worth developing, but one which I am afraid our people do not fully appreciate. If the country has the will to solve the problems which face the industry—much more importantly, if the Government had the will to face then now—it would be found to be well worth while. The full effect on our balance of payments of the cost of protecting our vital oil interests overseas is anyone's guess, but it must be considerable and should, of course, be reckoned in arriving at the true cost to us of the importation of oil.
I am sorry that I have had to be critical of my Government's lack of imagination in this matter, but, for the reasons I have given, I feel that I am justified. I would end, however, with words of commendation that are quite sincere. The Government do appreciate the financial problems of the coal industry and have made very important and substantial financial proposals to diminish those problems. They are adjusting the scheduled areas to enable the industrial employment so necessary, not only for those areas but for the future productivity of the United Kingdom as a whole.
They are making other financial proposals for assistance for the deployment of the mining labour force, and for its retraining. We do not want to send miners from South Wales to Yorkshire. I have in my constituency at present miners from Durham. They are very happy and they fit in, but that is not the point. We have the social capital in South Wales. Yorkshire has its own social capital to deal with its problems, and so on. That is not the way to solve the problem. Nevertheless, I thank the Government for what they have done and what they intend to do.
I would just tell the hon. Member for Cardiff, North that I dread to think what would have happened in the valleys of South Wales now if the pits had been in private hands. He suggested that some of the uneconomic pits should be sold to private industry. Private industry would not take them. I shudder to think what the situation would have been at the present time if instead of having a Labour Government facing up to the problems we had had a continuation of the Tory Administration for 30 years. All the comments that I am making are in the forefront of the minds of the people of South Wales, the miners and their wives. They have been very loyal to the Labour Government and the Labour Party since the dark days of 1931 up to the present time.
I accept with gratitude what the Government have done, but I must repeat that Governments since 1951, including the present one, have failed to appreciate the great wealth that we have in our indigenous fuel, coal, and, faced with the difficulties of manpower, old pits and the crazy financial structure of the industry, have not attempted to find the real answers but have come forward only with the answer that the industry must contract. That is crazy.
I agree with the right hon. Member for Monmouth and his right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, West (Mr. Iain Macleod), who opened for the Opposition in the debate on the National Plan yesterday. We want a new psychological approach to the problem. It was nonsense to say in the National Plan that the coal industry will be able to produce only 170 million or 180 million tons in 1970. That approach is completely wrong. The Government should have said, "If by 1970 the miners can produce 190 million tons to 200 million tons of the fuel, we as the Government will do all we can to see that it is used", for it could save the country millions of £s in our balance of payments.
If the Government had said that and had attempted to find ways and means of implementing it, the situation in the mining areas would have been transformed overnight. There would have been more hope and less frustration, and perhaps—I say it with a great question mark—a halt to the drift from the mining areas which is taking place, not only in the uneconomic areas but in the most prosperous ones. It is a psychological approach that we should have had. If we do not halt the drift, it will have serious effects not only upon the mining industry but the economic future of the country, and not in 10 or 15 years' time, but in 5 or 10 years' time.
My main criticism of the Government is not of the help which they are projecting and promising to give to the mining industry. It is that they are not doing these things now when the pits are closing. Also, I criticise them because they and those who have advised them have not had sufficient imagination in their approach to give hope at least to our basic indigenous fuel industry.