The formation of a new Government organization to foster and promote the interests of the Mining Industry of the United Kingdom has been recently proposed in two distinct quarters. The Coal Conservation Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction, which issued its report (Cd. 9084) early in the past year, recommended the establishment of a Ministry of Mines and Minerals, to be presided over by a Minister with a seat in Parliament; while in a report to the Minister of Munitions, issued as a white paper (Cd. 1984) on November 15, Sir Lionel Phillips, late Controller of the Department for the development of Mineral Resources in the United Kingdom, favours the setting up of a Mines Department, to be attached to one of the existing great Departments of State.