WORKLESS MINERS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 73, 19 December 1928, Page 12

WORKLESS MINERS

RELIEF MEASURES IN BRITAIN LORD MAYOR’S FUND SPECIAL PROVISIONS BY PARLIAMENT (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, December 17. The Lord Mayor of London's fund for the relief of distress in mining areas now exceeds £155,000. The Lord Mayor's fund is the largest of many that are being subscribed to, and throughout the country organisations are also engaged in collecting clothing, foodstuffs, and other gifts in kind. The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons to-day that tlie Government is not opposed to asking Parliament to authorise certain measures to deal with the present emergency In distressed mining areas. It was very important that these measures should be considered in addition to the policy which the Government had already initiated and was resolved to pursue. Apart altogether from the heavy cost of normal social services, including unemployment insurance, school medical services, and maternity and child welfare, and, in addition to the proposals for the relief of industry from local taxation, the special provisions made by Parliament for assistance of unemployed generally during the current financial year amounted to £1,700,000 over and above the Budget estimates. The special measures which the Government would now ask Parliament to pass were the authority to grant the Lord Mayor’s Fund £1 for every £1 received in voluntary subscriptions, and to make an immediate grant of £150,000 to the fund as an equivalent of the money already subscribed to the fund. TRANSFER FROM DISTRESSED AREAS (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) London, December 17. ■ Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Baldwin said that the transfer of unemployed from the distressed areas was proceeding steadily, but it was hindered because married men found it difficult to leave their homes unless special assistance was available for the removal and resettlement of the families. He would therefore ask Parliament to vote £lOO.OOO immediately for the remove’ of f*i”>ilies.