UNEMPLOYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 157, 4 July 1921, Page 8

UNEMPLOYED.

WISH TO GO TO FRANCE.

SYDNEY. June 24.

A deputation from the Trades Unions waited on the French Consul-General (M. Campana) yesterday afternoon. Mr. George Waite (United Labourers) made the introduction. The deputation pointed out that the unemployment problem was becoming each day more complex and more formidable. There was -no prospect of a solution in the immediate future. The men desired to emigrate to France. They thought that by so doing they could better their own conditions and at the same time alleviate the tension in Australia. About thirty years ago a similar industrial crisis was averted by a rush to the diamond fields at Kimberley. M. Campana thought it inadvisable at present to send labourers to France. There was certainly a lot of reconstruction work in progress as a result of the war, but France, like the remainder of the world, 'was agonised with financial troubles and her own r unemployed. In Marseilles alone there were recently as many as 46,000 men without employment. In addition, France was overflowing with foreign workmen, who remained after the war. In the South there were over 30,000 Spaniards and Italians. There ■were the colonies, certainly, and North Africa, in particular, had a great future. But black labour would have to be competed with, and it was better to be unemployed at home than abroad. Mr. ! Capana was aware that some men would succeed. But those who possessed the necessary perseverance and ability might do so in their own great country.