BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 200, 25 May 1925, Page 9

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

LABOUR PARTY’S METHOD OF SOLVING PROBLEM ANNUAL STATE GRANT OF TEN MILLIONS TO DEVELOP LANDS AND CREATE WORK A Bill introduced in the House of Commons by the Labour Party proposed to solve the unemployment problem by a State grant of ten millions sterling a year for development purposes in the Empire. The measure was rejected by the House by 216 votes to 118. Bi* Telegraph—Press Association. CoPYBIOHN (Rec. May 23, 5.5 p.m.)London, 'May 22. Unemployment was again discussed in the House of Commons. Mr. G. H. Oliver (Labour) moved the second reading of a Labour Party Bill, entitled the Prevention of Unemployment Bill, providing for the establishment of a national employment and development board, with a State grant of £10,000,000 a year. The Bill proposed that the board should consist of Ministers of the Crown, who would be empowered to make advances to Dominion or colonial Governments and local and public authorities, to be spent anywhere tn the Empire on purposes calculated to provide employment. Mr. Oliver said that great areas of land now idle in Britain could be used to produce much of the meat, butter, and sugar now imported. British craftsmen were going to America, although there was ample opportunity for them in the colonies if the colonies were developed as the report of the East African Commission showed they could be developed. Mr. Lloyd George declared that nothing could be done under the Bill which the Cabinet was unable to do without it. Lieut.-Colonel Headlam (Conservative) moved the rejection of the Bill on the ground that it afforded no real solution of the problem of unemployment, and would further handicap industrial revival by placing a new burden of ten millions a year on the taxpayers. The Bill was rejected by 216 votes to 118.—Reuter.