§ Mr. Rogersasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the shortage of inverted gas mantles in Kensington; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy the shortage.
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§ Sir S. CrippsI am well aware of this shortage. It is general throughout the country and affects not only domestic users but also street lighting authorities. The position is that before the war the production of gas mantles averaged about 17,000 gross a month, but owing largely to a reduction of the labour force in the industry, the average figure had dropped by 1945 to just over 7,000 gross. Production at this rate was quite inadequate to meet the suddenly increased demand, particularly from street lighting authorities, on the lifting of the blackout, and widespread shortage has resulted in recent months.
There has been some recent improvement in production; for last November and January the figure was about 8,000 gross, and for December over 9,000 gross, but any more substantial improvement must depend on more workers joining the industry, particularly to make ceramic rings for the mantles. Efforts are being made to increase the labour force and as a temporary measure we are investigating the possibility of obtaining gas mantles and gas mantle rings from abroad. Further, since ceramic rings are at present the bottleneck for production for gas mantles, manufacturers have been asked to arrange for collection of used rings from their customers and I hope that lighting authorities and the public will play their part by returning used gas mantle rings to their suppliers. I am afraid there is little prospect of ending this shortage until the summer months give us an opportunity to clear off arrears and to build up some stocks.