That is another and
quite separate question):--

(i) _The Present Lessees._--I see no reason to doubt that in the vast
majority of cases the present lessees would be prepared to continue to
operate their mines, paying royalties to the State instead of to the
present royalty-owner. Where the unit is sufficiently large and the
management efficient, the National Mining Board would probably grant a
fresh lease, incorporating such conditions as to unification, joint
control, and publicity as they might consider necessary. If the present
lessees do not want the lease, there are others who will.

(ii) _Larger Groups._--In a great many cases, however, the Board would
decline to grant separate leases in respect of each of a number of small
collieries, and would indicate that they were only prepared to receive
applications for leases by groups of persons or companies prepared to
amalgamate themselves into a corporation representing an output of x
tons _per annum_. This figure would vary in each coalfield. In South
Staffordshire, in particular, divided ownership has had most prejudicial
effects in the matter of pumping.

(iii) _District Coal Boards._--Sir Arthur Duckham's scheme of statutory
companies known as District Coal Boards requires consideration. Without
necessarily adopting his districts or his uniformity of type throughout
the country, there are many areas where it might be found that voluntary
amalgamation was impracticable, and that the desired result could only
be attained by an Act of Parliament providing for the compulsory
amalgamation of persons and companies working a specified area and the
issue of shares in the new corporation in exchange for the previous
holdings.

(iv) _Public Authorities._--I should very much like to see, sooner or
later, in some area, a lessee in the form of an organisation which,
though not national--not the State--should be at any rate
public--something on the lines of the Port of London Authority.

It may well be that in one or more of our coalfields a public authority
of this type, though with larger labour representation upon it and with
a large measure of joint control from top to bottom, would be a
suitable lessee of the minerals in that area. The important point is
that public management need not mean bureaucratic State-management with
the disadvantages popularly associated with it.

(v) I have mentioned several types of possible lessees, but it will be
noticed that there is n